Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles about Usage
Word RoutesExploring the pathways of our lexicon
Tracking Dialects on Twitter: What's Coo and What's Koo?
New techniques of "Twitterology" make it possible to study dialectal differences.
In last Sunday's New York Times, I wrote about how researchers are using Twitter to build huge linguistic datasets in order to answer all sorts of interesting analytical questions. Some are looking at the emotional responses of Libyans to unfolding events like the death of Qaddafi, while others are tracking the distribution of regional patterns in American English. This latter research area, Twitter dialectology, is just getting off the ground, but the results are already quite intriguing.
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Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word Lovers
Lexical Apostasy
A word like "shtick" can end up diverging from its original meaning.
Words step outside of their borders all the time; and once they are in new territory, they rarely follow the rules that bound them in their original context. As time passes, they can become complete strangers to their original users, and may even be seen as betraying them.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Ice Water, Ice Cream, but No Ice Tea!
Sometimes we lose the "-d" in compounds like "ice(d) cream," and sometimes we don't.
Ever wonder why we say "ice" water and "ice" cream but "iced" tea? And should there be a "d" in "didn't use(d) to"? Merrill Perlman explains when the "d " is necessary.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Acronym Amplification
Techie types love to make acronyms, but some editorial rules are needed for them.
A warm welcome to our newest regular contributor, Mike Pope. As a longtime technical writer and editor at Microsoft, Mike has developed some special know-how in that favorite techie shorthand, the acronym. Here Mike explains the ins and outs of acronyms and initialisms.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Unequal Rights: All Synonyms are Not the Same
Some cautionary advice to journalists and other writers about using near-synonyms.
Merrill Perlman explains why journalists should appreciate the special connotations of seemingly synonymous words.
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Blog Excerpts
The Rise (and Fall) of "Awesome"
Have you noticed how the word awesome once meant "awe-inspiring" or "extraordinarily good," but now just means, well, "good"? It's a case of semantic inflation, according to The Economist's Robert Lane Greene. Read his fascinating exploration of the word's plunge into mediocrity in Intelligent Life magazine here.
Behind the DictionaryLexicographers Talk About Language
The Linguistic Impact of 9/11? "9/11" Itself
Ten years later, "9/11" has become firmly entrenched in our lexicon.
The terrorist attacks on 9/11 happened ten years ago, and although everybody remembers what they were doing at that flashbulb moment, and many aspects of our lives were changed by those attacks, from traveling to shopping to going online, one thing stands out: the only significant impact that 9/11 has had on the English language is 9/11 itself.
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