Wordplay

 For the love of language

Top 12 Sophisticated Compliments

'Urbane,' 'incisive,' and other good things to be

Better Ways to Say 'This Sucks'

Your day is the worst. Your vocabulary is the best.

8 Words with Fascinating Histories

Heads up: one is 'vulgar'

Popular

Flower Etymologies For Your Spring Garden

A bouquet of floral origin stories

Word Choices

Gabrielle Zevin

Novelist

Emily Flake

New Yorker Cartoonist

Celeste Ng

Novelist

Eli Cymet

Video Game Writer/Producer, Cuphead

Emma Straub

Novelist and Children’s Book Author

Arts & Culture

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The Hilarious History of 'OK'

English's most successful export

10 Words Conjuring Hell and the Devil

Going beyond the fire and brimstone

7 Words from Political Scandals

Behind the smoke-filled rooms

10 Phrases from Shakespeare

Where the "wild goose chase" comes from

Has ‘supper’ always meant ‘dinner?'

Your grandmother might answer differently.
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Obscure & Fun

Obscure & Fun

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 1

Some may be more useful than others.

Foreign

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Words With London Origins

Essential words for Anglophiles

Skunk, Bayou, and Other Words with Native American Origins

You've used more than you might think

Digging Up the Latin Roots of 14 Abbreviations

Beyond 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

17 Words With No English Equivalent

Unique words from around the globe

8 Words We Stole from French

Spoiler: We stole way more than 8
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Games & Hobbies

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12 Words From Basketball

Plus a few terms that never quite made it

What It Means to ‘Touch Base’

Just checking in with it

A Player's Guide to 'Q' without 'U' Words

Remember this and win.

Why Do We Say Teams Get a 'Bye'?

Why are they leaving? Where are they going?

Two-Wheeled Words: Bicycle Terms

10 words every true cyclist will know
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Insults

Insults

Rare and Amusing Insults, Volume 3

Useful words for everyday interactions

Science & Nature

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9 Superb Owl Words

Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all? We do!

7 Especially Fitting Common Names for Plants

So you don't mix up your Swiss Cheese plants with your Dutchman's Breeches

7 Common Idioms That Come from Chickens

Don't ask us which came first

12 Pairs of Commonly Confused Animal Words

The animal words went in two by two, hurrah, hurrah!

A Cast of 12 Astrological Words

It's written in the stars
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Word History

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15 Words That Used to Mean Something Different

Including the secret history of 'secretary'

Etymologies for Every Day of the Week

The sun, the moon, four gods, and a goddess.

Eavesdrop, Fiasco, and 8 More Words with Surprising Origins

Including some trivia on ‘trivia’

9 Christmas Words with Surprising Histories

There's no bread in 'gingerbread'

Funner, Stupider, and Other Words That Are in Fact Real

Don't argue with the dictionary
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