top-10-words-with-bizarre-meanings-hapax-legomenon

10 Obscure Words That Are Somehow Real

For frog-tossing, sword dancing, & more

alt-5ba541d621bd2

The Good, The Bad, & The Semantically Imprecise - 9/21

Words from the week of 9/14/2018

How Do You Pronounce 'Vase'?

And is one way more correct than the others?

Name that Food Quiz

Test your knowledge of food and food words.

alt-5b9a77b2af6b1

Red Cross: 'Spartan' Conditions in Shelters

Red Cross Warns of Shelter Conditions

Latest Video

How Do You Pronounce 'Vase'?

And is one way more correct than the others?

video-ghost-words

Ghost Word

The story of an imaginary word that managed to sneak past our editors and enter the dictionary.

2017 Word of the Year: Behind the Scenes

How we chose 'feminism'

video-title-words-of-the-year-1066

Words of the Year: 1066

Or, Why Pig Meat is Called 'Pork' and Cow Meat is Called 'Beef'

The Serial Comma

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

peter_talk_about_word_of_the_year_2016

2016 Word of the Year: Behind the Scenes

How we chose 'surreal'

Hot Mess

"The public is a hot mess"

Malaprop

We'll tell you all the perpendiculars

alright-allright-video

Alright vs. All Right

Is 'alright' all right?

backward-index-mystery

The True Story of the Backward Index

These people needed a computer

is-none-singular-or-plural-video

Is None Singular or Plural?

Or both? Or neither?

there-theyre-their-video

There, They're, Their

There, there. We'll sort it out.

video-his-or-her

Is Singular 'They' a Better Choice?

The awkward case of 'his or her'

sneaked-vs-snuck-video

Sneaked vs. Snuck

How the irregular 'snuck' sneaked into the dictionary

word-of-the-year-2015-video

2015 Word of the Year: Behind the Scenes

Editor Peter Sokolowski talks about our Word of the Year selections.

how-to-read-a-french-menu-video

How to Read a French Menu

How to amuse-bouche without begging pardon for your French

further-vs-farther-video

Further vs. Farther

They started as same word, but their meanings have drifted apart over time.

video-lay-vs-lie

Lay vs. Lie

Editor Emily Brewster clarifies the difference.

video-title-attorney-generals

Is It 'Attorney Generals' Or 'Attorneys General'?

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

fun-funner-funnest

Fun, Funner, Funnest

Why does it sound strange to say 'funner' or 'funnest?'

video-20014-word-of-the-year

2014 Word of the Year: Behind the Scenes

The inside scoop behind our 2014 Word of the Year selections.

video-websters-video-of-1864

Webster's Dictionary of 1864

The landmark edition that transformed the way dictionaries are made.

video-old-school-grammar-humorsome

Old-School Grammar

Many of today's grammar rules can be traced to the opinions of one 18th century writer.

Schwa

The most common vowel sound in English causes many spelling problems.

Cynic

How an ancient philosophical movement devoted to the pursuit of virtue came to describe eye-rolling criticism.

1
2

page 1 of 2

WORD OF THE DAY

panoply

a magnificent or impressive array

Test Your Vocabulary

Name that Food Quiz

Name these cookies!

How Strong Is Your Vocabulary?

Test your vocabulary with our 10-question quiz!

TAKE THE QUIZ

Word Winder's CrossWinder

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.

TAKE THE QUIZ

Ask the Editors

Word Games