Wordplay: For the Love of Language | Merriam-Webster

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What to Call the Inept, Incompetent, and Inferior

What to call the inept, incompetent, and inferior

Strange Words for Body Functions

Did you know that you 'micturate' and 'sternutate'?

Where does 'curiosity killed the cat' come from?

No cats were harmed in the making of this idiom

Cattywampus, Taradiddle, and More Funny-Sounding Words

Feeling 'bumfuzzled' or have the 'collywobbles'?

Is “GIF” Pronounced “Jiff” or “Giff”?

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

We’ve seen fire, we’ve seen rain, and we have many words for them

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

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

Flower Etymologies For Your Spring Garden

A bouquet of floral origin stories

Word Choices

Gabrielle Zevin

Emily Flake

New Yorker Cartoonist

Celeste Ng

Eli Cymet

Video Game Writer/Producer, Cuphead

Emma Straub

Novelist and Children’s Book Author

Arts & Culture

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

The answer to a color coded language riddle

Ten Kinds of Happiness

Joyful words from around the world

17 Words for Dog Breeds

If you love dogs and words, you’re barking up the right tree

Ten More Words from Taylor Swift Songs

… Ready for them?

8 Delicious Words with Inedible Meanings

Which one is the apple of your eye?

Foreign

'In Vino Veritas' and Other Latin Phrases to Live By

Top 10 Latin Phrases

10 of Our Favourite British Words

Please don't whinge about being knackered, you prat.

Digging Up the Latin Roots of 14 Abbreviations

Beyond 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

All About Latin Plurals

Check your dictionary

Skunk, Bayou, and Other Words with Native American Origins

You've used more than you might think

Games & Hobbies

Why Is the Sport Called ‘Pickleball’?

The origin story is clearer than most sports

A Player's Guide to 'Q' without 'U' Words

Remember this and win.

These Are Fighting Words

Common terms that come from boxing and wrestling

Winning Scrabble Words for Everyday People

You don't have to be a pro to play these words.

Know Your Baseball Idioms

'Southpaw,' 'can of corn,' and other phrases

Science & Nature

12 Pairs of Commonly Confused Animal Words

The animal words went in two by two, hurrah, hurrah!

A Journey to the Moon in 12 Words

Read this before attempting a moon shot

7 Common Idioms That Come from Chickens

Don't ask us which came first

12 Bird Names that Sound Like Compliments

From the godwits at your favorite dictionary

Amber, Auburn, Crimson and Other Colorful Words for Autumn Foliage

Peep these leaves.

Word History

Why do we call it a 'pipe dream'?

Hint: 19th century drug use

How a Word For "Blood" Came to Mean "Optimistic"

The Odd History of "Sanguine"

Much Ado about ‘Folie à deux’

From French psychiatry to the silver screen

10 Words You Don’t Seem to Hear as Much These Days

As chosen by you, the social media scroller!

Words That Turned 100 in 2025

Happy Birthday to our Centenarians