Ripped from the Headlines: April 2025: April Vocabulary Words

National Arbor Day, which is observed on the last Friday in April, is an annual celebration of trees. When the very first Arbor Day in the U.S. was held in the state of Nebraska in 1872, more than a million trees were planted across the largely treeless Great Plains. By the 1920s, people in almost every U.S. state observed the holiday by planting elms, maples, oaks, and more. Arbor's Latin root, arboris, means "tree."

The exact date of William Shakespeare's birth isn't known, but the "Bard of Avon" is traditionally honored on April 23. As good luck would have it, 'tis also National Talk Like Shakespeare Day — when, verily, ev'ryone is encourag'd to speaketh like the Bard. The word bard derives from a Celtic root meaning "poet or singer."

In most parts of the northern hemisphere, April is when many flowering plants begin to bloom. Think daffodils and tulips, and all the other brightly colored blooms most associated with spring. In addition to the word's meanings of "a flower" and "to produce flowers," bloom can also mean "state of greatest beauty or youth" or "to flourish."

An Easter bonnet is a fancy hat worn on Easter Sunday. It's a tradition in many Christian faiths for women to wear some kind of hat or head covering to church — an Easter bonnet is a festive variation on this custom. Buying new clothes is also a way to commemorate the end of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and penitence observed by some Christians before Easter. Easter is always celebrated in March or April, on the first Sunday after the full moon that follows the spring equinox.

For more than 50 years, April 22 has been known as Earth Day in the U.S. The event is meant to encourage conservation of natural resources and protection of the environment. Education and activism have become an important part of Earth Day, with marches and protests taking place around the world. In 2016, more than 120 countries signed a climate change mitigation treaty called the Paris Agreement on Earth Day. Conservation comes from a root that means "to guard or protect."

A news article about the sudden, unexplained disappearance of the Statue of Liberty is almost certain to have a publication date of April 1 — it's that journalist's way of saying "April Fools!" Beloved by many, hated by others, this unofficial holiday — known for practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks — goes back to at least the 16th century. The Latin root of fool, follis, means "bellows" or "windbag" and was also used in Vulgar Latin to mean "empty-headed person."

Jazz aficionados appreciate this uniquely American music genre all year long, but since 2001, the entire month of April has been designated Jazz Appreciation Month. That means a chance to spend 30 days going to concerts and listening to works of jazz masters, from Jelly Roll Morton and Billie Holiday to Miles Davis and Jon Batiste. Before it described this exciting musical style, jazz was used as baseball slang to mean "lively or energetic."

The Jewish holiday of Passover, or Pesach, lasts eight days during the months of March or April. It commemorates the Biblical story of Exodus, when God freed the Israelites from slavery. Observant Jews don't consume leavened bread during Passover, instead eating the unleavened cracker-like bread called matzo or matzah. Leaven is also the word for an ingredient like yeast that is added to baked goods to make them rise. Its Latin root means "to lift or raise."

April 10 is Siblings Day, a day observed in parts of the U.S. and Canada to celebrate the special relationships between sisters and brothers. Sibling is an Old English word meaning "relative" that was brought back into use by early 20th-century anthropologists. Today, it's used as a description of people who share at least one parent.

Since 1955, April 15 has been a date many working adults in the United States dread: Tax Day. For some, the month itself has become synonymous with this deadline for paying federal and state income taxes. Taxation is the process of a government taking some portion of peoples' income to pay for public services, national defense, infrastructure, and more.

Every baseball game starts the same way, with the umpire yelling, "Play ball!" Opening Day, the start of the regular season, is no different. It happens in the last week of March or the first week of April, when major and minor league teams spring into action, with pitchers warming up and umpires officially starting play and calling balls and strikes. Umpire derives from a root meaning "odd number," a reference to a third person arbitrating between two others.

April marks National Poetry Month, a chance to celebrate verse and spread knowledge and appreciation of poetry. Verse comes from a root meaning "to turn over or bend," and its poetical sense grew from the idea of a poet turning from one line to the next the way a plow turns over soil, making furrows in the ground.