Wordplay

Arts & Culture

10 Words for Food with Unfortunate Names

All of them may be delicious, but one is offal

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

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

The Hilarious History of 'OK'

English's most successful export

10 Words Conjuring Hell and the Devil

Going beyond the fire and brimstone

Why Jaywalking is Called Jaywalking

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

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

The technical vocabulary hiding in your kitchen cabinet

Ten Kinds of Happiness

Joyful words from around the world

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

You'll love to hate these other words!

The Opposite of Déjà Vu

When the familiar becomes unrecognizable

What exactly is a 'liberal'?

No one wants a 'servile arts' degree

15 Cheffy Words for Chefs (and Everyone Else)

Including 'cheffy'

Stay Woke

Tracing the history of 'woke'

7 Words from Political Scandals

Behind the smoke-filled rooms

10 Phrases from Shakespeare

Where the "wild goose chase" comes from

9 Financial Words With Surprising Origins

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

Has ‘supper’ always meant ‘dinner?'

Your grandmother might answer differently.

11 Words Used to Great Effect by Edgar Allan Poe

The Vocabulary in the Rue Morgue

Heroin, Granola, & More: Products That Became Words

Top 10 Words from Trademarks

How 'Mardi Gras' Got Its Name

Quick: eat everything in the house.

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

The answer to a color coded language riddle

How a Word Gets into the Dictionary

What our editors are looking for when they enter words in Merriam-Webster.

What do SCOTUS, POTUS, and FLOTUS mean?

The acronyms began as telegraph codes

A Guide to British Noble Titles

Know your Duchess from your Baroness
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