Wordplay

Arts & Culture

The Changing Meaning of 'Elope'

Read this before you elope. Or 'elope.'

9 Other Words for Beautiful

Here are some additional words for calling something lovely

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

And why isn't it 'bury the lead'?

10 Words for Food with Unfortunate Names

All of them may be delicious, but one is offal

Did 'orange' the fruit or the color come first?

The answer to a color coded language riddle

How 'Mardi Gras' Got Its Name

Quick: eat everything in the house.

Heroin, Granola, & More: Products That Became Words

Top 10 Words from Trademarks

11 Words Used to Great Effect by Edgar Allan Poe

The Vocabulary in the Rue Morgue

Words from the 'Odyssey'

Brush up your Homer

Has ‘supper’ always meant ‘dinner?'

Your grandmother might answer differently.

9 Financial Words With Surprising Origins

In the beginning, 'income' simply meant "coming in"

10 Phrases from Shakespeare

Where the "wild goose chase" comes from

7 Words from Political Scandals

Behind the smoke-filled rooms

Stay Woke

Tracing the history of 'woke'

15 Cheffy Words for Chefs (and Everyone Else)

Including 'cheffy'

What exactly is a 'liberal'?

No one wants a 'servile arts' degree

The Opposite of Déjà Vu

When the familiar becomes unrecognizable

If You Like to Complain About 'Decimate'...

You'll love to hate these other words!

Ten Kinds of Happiness

Joyful words from around the world

What's so extra about 'extra-virgin'?

The technical vocabulary hiding in your kitchen cabinet

Why Jaywalking is Called Jaywalking

The shape of the letter J has nothing to do with it

10 Words Conjuring Hell and the Devil

Going beyond the fire and brimstone

1,400 New Words and Definitions Added to Merriam-Webster.com
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