Word Facts

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The English language is full of surprises. Discover the origins of words and sayings, and keep the trickiest terms straight. </span>

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Word Facts

“Beeves” And Other Plural Words You Didn’t Know Existed
“Cite” vs. “Site” vs. “Sight”: How To Spot The Difference
“Desert” vs. “Dessert”: When To Use Each One
“Evoke” Vs. “Invoke”: Time To Call Forth Their Differences
“Ocean” vs. “Sea”: Coast Through The Differences
“Quadragenarian” Or “Octogenarian”: What Is The Name For Your Decade Age?
“Resume” vs. “Résumé”: A Brief Account Of Their Differences
“Scum,” “Sludge,” “Slush,” “Slime,” And Other Disgusting Words
“Sir” And “Madam” Are Shorter Versions Of What Words?
“Undergraduate” vs. “Graduate”: Educate Yourself On The Difference
“Upmost” vs. “Utmost”: Get On Top Of The Difference
“Virus” vs. “Bacteria”: What’s The Difference?
10 Commonly Misused Words
10 Unusual Wedding Words
11 Contronyms You’ve Been Using Without Realizing It
11 Names For Facial Hair (We Could Do Without)
13 Essential Literary Terms
15 Shades Of Green: Where We Got These Colorful Words
7 Serendipitous Ways To Say “Lucky”
7 Spooky Words For Halloween
8 Common Words You’re Probably Using Incorrectly
A Baby Named “Like” And The History Of Names (Anthroponymy)
A Brief History Of The Letter H
A Language Of Pride: Understand The Terms Around LGBTQ Identity
A Smack Of Jellyfish, A Zeal of Zebras, And Other Fun Animal Group Names
Arboreal To Zephyrean: 14 Sizzling Words To Enjoy On A Summer Day
Are There Any English Words That Have No Vowels?
Are There Any Words Without Rhymes?
Basic Spelling Rules Explained
Bet You Can’t Guess Where The Word “Glamour” Comes From
Beyond Sad, Mad, and Glad: Words For Grown-Up Emotions
Bond Ambition: “Squads” and “Squad Goals” Explained
Caring About Whether You Couldn’t Care Less
Clickbait Isn’t New
Comparatives vs. Superlatives
Cough, Cough: Here Are 10 Different Ways To Say “-ough”
Dictionary.com’s Winter Break Word Challenges For Kids
Did You Know How This Word Was Formed?
Digging Up Old Slang For Body Parts
Digital Words With An Analog Past
Do You Know What These Weird Plurals Mean?
Do You Know Which Of These Words Came First?
Does “Bimonthly” Mean Twice A Month Or Every Two Months?
Essential Car-Sales Lingo To Know On The Lot
Everyday English Words With Ancient Arabic Roots
Extra! Extra! Journalism Jargon Explained
Extraordinary Ways To Maintain Your Virtue
Five English Words That Are Utterly Unique
Fore! These Golf Terms Will Land You On The Green
Funny Words You Probably Don’t Know
Gambling Terms To Get Ahead
Ghost Words That Are Haunting The Dictionary
Has The Word “Expert” Lost Its Meaning?
Here Are All The Ways to Use the Word Bae
How -Able Lets You Expand Your Descriptive Abilities
How Do You Use The Word “Myriad” In A Sentence?
How Does The English Language Handle Gender Identity?
How Many Words Are There In The English Language?
How To Use Roman Numerals
In Defense of the Figurative Use of Literally
Is “Anti” Actually An Inclusive Term?
Is “Exult” The Word You’ll Be Looking For After This Election?
Is “Supposably” A Real Word?
Is Ironic The Most Abused Word In English?
Is Irregardless A Word?
Is It Ever OK To Say “Didja”?
Is It Naughty Or Not? What “Burlesque” Actually Means
Is It True “W” Can Be Used As A Vowel?
Is The Coronavirus A Plague?
Is There Such A Thing As A True Synonym?
Jalopy And Other Trending Words On Dictionary.com
Kangaroo Words: Words That Contain Their Own Synonyms
Know These 9 Commonly Confused Homophones?
Learn About “Mumpsimus” And Other Embarrassing Speech Blunders
Learn The Strange Link Between The Letters C And G
Lexical Investigations: Critical Thinking
Lexical Investigations: Mazel Tov
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Et Al.
Master The Secrets Of Crosswordese
Meet The Animal That Inspired The Letter A
Meet The Man Responsible For The Letter “J”
Misleading Terms You’ve Been Using Wrong (For Good Reason)
Negative Or Positive Reinforcement: Which Is Better?
No One Pronounces These 10 Words The Same
Old (But Not Entirely Forgotten) Office Terminology
Paranormal Activity: The Language of Ghastly Ghouls
Peanut Butter Nightmares And Other Lesser-Known Phobias
Prepare For Passover With These Pertinent Terms
Quacks and Other People Not To Be Trusted
Quiz Yourself On The Meanings Of These Names
Read Poetry Like An Expert With These Advanced Poetic Terms
Relish The Spirit Of Ramadan With These Essential Words
Sip On These Words To Talk Like A Wine Expert
Soccer Terms For When The World Cup Is The Only Thing On TV
Talk About Poetry With These Introductory Poetic Terms
Taser: A Surprising Acronym With An Unsettling Story
Terms To Know When Making A Deal
Thank Your Babushka For These 8 Russian Loanwords In English
The 8 Parts Of Speech In English
The Curious Chronicle Of The Letter C
The Dirtiest Words . . . That Aren’t
The Good And The Bad: Words That Can’t Choose
The Growing Popularity Of The Suffix ‘-Splain’
The Language Of Ageism: Understanding How We Talk About Older People
The Letter B Once Had A Much Longer Name
The Longest Words In The English Language
The Most Epic Words You’re Probably Neglecting
The Most Satisfying Words To Say In English
The Surprising Meaning Of Honeymoon Explained
The Torturous Treadmill And Other Exercise Name Origins
There’s A Word For Why Adele’s Music Makes Us Cry
These Are The Most Misspelled Words On Dictionary.com
These Common Words Have Some Very Uncommon Opposites
These Hacks Remind Us That Spelling Still Matters
These Old Words Sound Dirtier Than They Really Are
These Uncommon Singular Words Sound So Wrong
These Word Pairs Look Like They’re Related, But Surprisingly They’re Not
These Words Are Not Exactly Like One Another
These Words Help Explain Why We Need Portmanteaus
Try Tongue Twisters Today!
Unfurl These Banner Facts And Words About Flag Day
Weasel Words And Other Ways We Avoid Telling The Truth
Weird Obsessions You Never Knew Had A Name
Weird Word Origins That Will Make Your Family Laugh
Weird Words For Crazy Urges We’ve All Had
Were P And R Once The Same Letter?
What Are Context Clues?
What are Informal, Nonstandard, and Slang Words?
What Are Mr. And Mrs. Short For?
What Character Was Removed From The Alphabet?
What Do “a.m.” And “p.m.” Stand For?
What Do “Numpire” and “Ewt” Have in Common?
What Do Double Entendres Mean?
What Do The A, C, And T Of The ACT Test Mean?
What Do The Most Well-Known Website Names Mean?
What Do You Call Your Place Of Worship?
What Does “Bigot” Mean Exactly? (Its Origin Involves Cussing)
What Does “Pope” Mean? And How Does A Pope Choose His Name?
What Does “Sophomore” Mean?
What Does “Wag the Dog” Mean?
What Does “ZIP Code” Stand For?
What Does “FICO” Stand For?
What Does “Musty” Literally Smell Like?
What Does Contrail Mean?
What Does It Mean To Be “Fluent” In A Language?
What Does It Mean To Be Electable?
What Does The Letter “U” Have To Do With “W”?
What Does The Name “Frankenstein” Actually Mean?
What Does The Word “Caliphate” Mean?
What Does The Word “Summer” Mean?
What Is “GOP” Short For?
What Is A “Ban”?
What Is A “Vexillologist”?
What Is A Chronicle?
What Is A Cliché?
What Is A Courgette” And Why Is It Funny?
What Is A Schwa?
What Is Body Language?
What Is Hypocatastasis?
What Is Phonetic Spelling?
What Is The Difference Between “Gender” And “Sex”?
What Is The Difference Between Archaic And Obsolete Words?
What is the literal meaning of “eleven?”
What Is The Longest Palindrome In English?
What Is The Word For Bad Handwriting?
What Makes African American Vernacular English Distinct And Complex
What Percentage Of English Words Are Derived From Latin?
What Term Describes Your Relationship: Polygyny, Polyamory, Monandry?
What The “X” In “Xbox” Stand For?
What To Know About The Holidays Called Eid (And Why There Are Two Of Them)
What You Need To Know About “Protester” vs. “Rioter” vs. “Terrorist” vs. “Mob”
What’s It Called When You Misinterpret Lyrics?
What’s The #’s Real Name?
What’s The Area Between Your Eyebrows Called?
What’s The Name For The Dot Over “i” And “j”?
What’s The Technical Term For A Slip Of The Tongue?
What’s The Word for More Than One Software?
When Did The Letter U Enter The Alphabet?
When To Capitalize “Earth”
Where Did The Phrase “Thoughts And Prayers” Come From?
Where Did The Word “Achoo” Come From?
Where Do Winter Words Like “Frost” And “Cozy” Come From?
Where The Bleep Did That Curse Word Come From?
Where There’s Warmth, There’s Also Coolth: Long Lost Word Pairs
Who Is Wednesday Named For?
Who Wrote The Alphabet Song?
Who’s To Blame For Weird English Spellings?
Why Are A, E, I, O, U, And Y Called “Vowels”?
Why Are People From The Netherlands Called Dutch?
Why Are So Many Searching For A “Holy Grail”?
Why Are There Multiple Spellings Of These Everyday Words?
Why are zero and the letter “O” both circles? The answer involves both science and mysticism
Why Did “Noon” Use To Mean 3:00?
Why Do Americans Call Football “Soccer”?
Why Do Brits And Americans Spell Words Differently?
Why Do We Use Onomatopoeia?
Why Does The Letter Q Almost Always Need The Letter U?
Why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” Was Actually Anaphora
Why Is “Christmas” Abbreviated As “Xmas”?
Why Is “Dog” One Of The Great Mysteries Of The English Language?
Why Is It Called “Adultery” When It’s Not A Particularly “Adult” Thing To Do?
Why Is Marijuana Also Called Pot?
Why Was Z Removed From The Alphabet (And Then Put Back)?
Words That Are Older Than You Think
Words That Can’t Exist Without Their Negative Prefixes
Words That Didn’t Really Catch On (And You’ll See Why)
Words That Every Gemini Should Know
Words To Describe Your Worst Fights
Words To Help You Explain Your Kid’s First Grade Homework
Words To Know For High School
Words To Know For Your First Year Of College
Words You Didn’t Know Were Inspired By Animals
Y.E.S: These Words Are Acronyms
Yiddish Words That Will Make You A Maven
You can debunk something, but why can’t you bunk something?
You Won’t Understand The News Without These Words

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2020	2021	2022

Word Facts

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The English language is full of surprises. Discover the origins of words and sayings, and keep the trickiest terms straight. </span>

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