Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles about Advertising
Black Friday. Small Business Saturday. Cyber Monday. Here's an alternative to the retail frenzy: accumulate some new words. They don't take up any space, and they're free!
Continue reading...
If you've been keeping your head down, just doing your job and paying the bills, it may have escaped your notice that we live in exciting times. Yes, really! We're excited about things! We're excited by things! We're excited to do things! And, increasingly, we're excited for things, events, and experiences.
Continue reading...
CandlepowerAd and marketing creatives
Branding Weirds Language
Columnist Nancy Friedman weighs in on the "verbing" of nouns.
"Verbing weirds language." Ad copywriters have made the weirding of language – and especially the verbing of nouns – a signal feature of the current brandscape. They're only the most visible of the language-weirders who are making the culture more expressive... or more vexing, depending on your point of view.
Continue reading...
Earlier this year the Associated Press Stylebook issued one of its frequent updates. "Do not use ride-sharing" to refer to services such as Uber and Lyft, the stylebook counseled; instead, use the modifier ride-booking or ride-hailing. It was the AP's quixotic bid to stem the increasingly common use of sharing to refer to a wide range of activities that are not quite as selfless as the word share may suggest.
Continue reading...
Today is "Cyber Monday," the day that retailers have anointed as the kickoff of the online holiday shopping season. "Cyber Monday" is a recent coinage, going back to a 2005 press release. "Black Friday," on which "Cyber Monday" is modeled, goes back to the early 1960s, and some newly discovered evidence illuminates its early use.
Continue reading...
In a comment on recent Blog post "Words We Love to Hate," Vocabulary.com user Sarah S. referenced the dreaded language of corporate speak: "Words like leverage, gamification, user interface, audience engagement, strategise...when I see the words 'align with' my aorta nearly pops!" And Sarah S. is not by any stretch of the imagination the first person to take issue with the language of corporate ladder climbing (or ladder clinging, as the case may be).
Continue reading...
From this past Thursday's New York Times: "In case you haven't noticed, some of the most amusing and captivating writing in the city is being produced in the service of cheese." Check out our Vocabulary List "Words for Cheese" drawn from this cheese writing, and an earlier Vocabulary.com blog post "Cheese Words" for a quick primer on cheese vocabulary (and cheese itself).
Continue reading...
Sign up now (it’s free!)
Whether you’re a teacher or a learner,
Vocabulary.com can put you or your class
on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.