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Tradecraft, which has been spy jargon since at least the 1960s, has been making its way into more mainstream consciousness recently, as we hear about operations like the search for Osama bin Laden, or about Edward Snowden's training as a spy. It's a good example of how words with seemingly transparent meanings can settle into semantic idiosyncrasy through historical circumstance. Continue reading...

When the fourth through eighth graders at Enrico Fermi School for the Performing Arts in Yonkers, NY swept the Vocabulary.com school leaderboard in May, their entire community stood up and took notice. Continue reading...

"What was your latest preneur?"

It's one of the most quoted lines in the 2010 movie The Social Network. The line is proof that -preneur has bid adieu to its entre- associate and become a word part with independent staying power. Continue reading...

Both are containers, but a sac is for plants and animals, and a sack is for a sandwich. So spiders put their eggs in a sac, and people put their groceries in a sack. Continue reading...

Soccer or football? Game or match? Pitch or field? And why would you refer to a shirt as a kit? World Cup vocabulary explained. Continue reading...

We're happy to introduce the first in a series of tips on usage and style from the inimitable Grammar Girl, a.k.a. Mignon Fogarty. First up: how do you punctuate do and don't when the words are pluralized? Continue reading...

When logophiles Henry and Catherine Petroski were first falling in love, they passed each other "word stumper" notes in lieu of flowers and candy. Want to replicate their game? Here are ten word stumpers to enjoy or share. Continue reading...

Anyone familiar with the children's movie Despicable Me 2 will not be surprised to hear that use of minion among children has grown by 250 percent in the last year. Similarly, kids who play Minecraft are not immune to the charms of unusual vocabulary ocelot, nether and spawn as never before. Does this mean screen time might actually be good for vocab? Continue reading...

Days of Future Past: It's not just the subtitle of the new X-Men movie that recently opened; it's an invitation to explore some of the lesser-traveled corridors in the English verb tense system. Continue reading...