play videos pictures in the dictionary
Up Next
Title
CANCEL
videos pictures in the dictionary
Words Matter

Pictures in the Dictionary

The story of those iconic illustrations.

The story of those iconic illustrations.

Up next

play videos pictures in the dictionary
Pictures in the Dictionary

 

The story of those iconic illustrations.

play serial comma
The Serial Comma Explained

 

Why don't they call it the Merriam-Webster comma?

play video soup vs soop
An Abbreviated History of American English Spelling

 

Soop, wimmen, and headake did not make the cut

play mrs malaprop
What is a malaprop?

 

We'll tell you all the perpendiculars

play cartoon-of-british-nobility
Why did Yankee Doodle call a feather 'macaroni'?

 

What's with his feathered cap?

play video title attorney generals
Is It 'Attorney Generals' Or 'Attorneys General'?

 

'Poets laureate'? 'Court-martials'? The curious history of postpositive adjectives in English.

play backward index mystery
The True Story of the Backward Index

 

These people needed a computer

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
little boy with a magnifying glass looking at footprints
Quiz: Spot the Misspelled Word! Think you can detect a spelling error from a mile...
See All