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mrs malaprop
Words at Play

What is a malaprop?

Editor Peter Sokolowski will tell you all the perpendiculars

A malapropism, or malaprop, is the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase, especially the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in context—like polo bears instead of polar bears.

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play mrs malaprop
What is a malaprop?

 

We'll tell you all the perpendiculars

play illustration of a man watching a washing machine overflow
'All over sudden' vs. 'All of a sudden'

 

Figuring it out at once

play videos pictures in the dictionary
Pictures in the Dictionary

 

The story of those iconic illustrations.

play illustrated notebook that says everyday vs every day
'Everyday' vs. 'Every Day'

 

A simple trick to keep them separate

play african american english
African American English

 

play person studying illustration
'All Intensive Purposes' or 'All Intents and Purposes'?

 

We're intent on clearing it up

play contractions
On Contractions of Multiple Words

 

You all would not have guessed some of these

Games & Quizzes

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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
tiny woman sitting on a pile of books reading
Little Words, Big Vocabulary Quiz Time to sweat the small stuff.
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