Word Facts
Tips, tricks, commonly confused terms, and words you should know
- “Affect” vs. “Effect”: Use The Correct Word Every Time
- “Compliment” vs. “Complement”: How To Pick The Right Word
- “Daylight Savings Time” And Commonly Mixed-Up Words And Phrases
- “In Case Of” vs. “In The Event Of”: Which One Is Correct?
- “Infamous” vs. “Notorious”: Why Is There A Difference?
- “Juridical Process” vs. “Judicial Process”
- “Jury-rigged” vs. “Jerry-rigged”
- “Make Peace” With vs. “Come To Terms With”
- “Not Good” vs. “No Good”: When To Use Them Both
- “Oblivious To” vs. “Oblivious Of”: Are You Using Them Correctly?
- “It is I” vs. “It’s Me”: Which One Should You Use?
- 10 Commonly Misused Words
- 12 Essential Types Of Poetry
- 13 Essential Literary Terms
- 8 Common Words You’re Probably Using Incorrectly
- A Brief History Of The Letter H
- A Look At American Sign Language
- A Smack Of Jellyfish And Other Strange Animal Groups
- Accept vs. Except
- Advice vs. Advise
- Allusion vs. Illusion
- Alright vs. All Right
- Alumni vs. Alumnus
- Amidst vs. Amid
- Among vs. Amongst
- Are There Any English Words That Have No Vowels?
- Are There Any Words That Use “W” As A Vowel?
- Are There Any Words Without Rhymes?
- Assent vs. Ascent
- Assume vs. Presume
- Basic Spelling Rules Explained
- Blond vs. Blonde: What’s The Difference?
- Bond Ambition: “Squads” and “Squad Goals” Explained
- Bring vs. Take
- Capital vs. Capitol
- Caring About Whether You Couldn’t Care Less
- Common Words With Uncommon Opposites
- Comparatives vs. Superlatives
- Comprise vs. Compose
- Continually vs. Continuously
- Cough, Cough: Here Are 10 Different Ways To Say “-ough”
- Cozy Words For A Cold Day
- Cue vs. Queue
- Cyclone, Typhoon, Hurricane: Are They All The Same?
- Denotation vs. Connotation
- Did You Know How This Word Was Formed?
- Digging Up Old Slang For Body Parts
- Digital Words With An Analog Past
- Disinterested vs. Uninterested
- Dissent vs. Protest: Why Choosing The Right Word Matters
- Do You Give Presents Or Gifts? Here’s The Difference
- Do You Know What These Weird Plurals Mean?
- Do Zoologists Pick Animal Names Like “Pink Fairy Armadillo”?
- Does “Bimonthly” Mean Twice A Month Or Every Two Months?
- Does “None” Take A Singular Or Plural Verb?
- Don’t Get Tripped Up By These Ten Tricky Homophones
- Empathy vs. Sympathy: Which Word To Use And When
- Everyday English Words With Ancient Arabic Roots
- Everyday Vs. Every Day
- Explain The Difference Between Enemy And Nemesis
- Famous Names That Inspired Common Words
- Farther vs. Further
- Fewer vs. Less
- Fiancé vs. Fiancée: Which One Is Which?
- Five English Words That Are Utterly Unique
- Footnotes vs. Endnotes
- For All “Intents and Purposes” vs. “Intensive Purposes”
- Former vs. Latter
- Gambling Terms To Get Ahead
- Ghost Words That Are Haunting The Dictionary
- Grey vs. Gray
- Here Are All The Ways to Use the Word Bae
- Holy $#!%: Where Did The Symbolic Swear Come From?
- Hone In vs. Home In
- Hot Dog! Are They Sandwiches, Or Not?
- How can I figure out when to use some time, sometime, or sometimes?
- How Did The Month Of June Get Its Name?
- How Do You Use The Word “Myriad” In A Sentence?
- How Does The English Language Handle Gender Identity?
- How Is Manslaughter Different From Murder?
- How To Format And Cite A Word And Definition
- How To Use “Lay” vs. “Lie”
- How To Use Roman Numerals
- How Young People Are Redefining Sexuality And Romantic Attraction
- Hyper vs. Hypo
- Hyperbole vs. Hype
- I vs. Me
- If “W” Is Double U, Why Is It Made Of Two Vs?
- Imply Vs. Infer
- In Defense of the Figurative Use of Literally
- Inertia vs. Momentum: Which Keeps You Moving?
- Ingenious vs. Ingenuous
- Inhibit vs. Prohibit
- Inquire vs. Enquire
- Insidious vs. Invidious
- Inter- vs Intra-
- Intrusive vs. Obtrusive
- Irreparable vs. Unrepairable
- Is “Achoo” A Real Word?
- Is “Supposably” A Real Word?
- Is Ironic The Most Abused Word In English?
- Is Irregardless A Word?
- Is It “I Wish I Were” Or “I Wish I Was”?
- Is It “Just Deserts” Or “Just Desserts”?
- Is It “Opinion Of,” “Opinion On,” Or “Opinion About”?
- Is It “Sometime,” “Sometimes,” Or “Some Time”?
- Is It “With Regard” Or “With Regards”?
- Is It “Different From” Or “Different Than”?
- Is It Ever OK To Say “Didja”?
- Is It Tis Or ‘Tis?
- Is There A Difference Between A “Symphony,” “Orchestra,” And “Philharmonic”?
- Is There Such A Thing As A True Synonym?
- Is USA A Noun Or Adjective?
- Itch vs. Scratch: What’s The Difference?
- Jalopy And Other Trending Words On Dictionary.com
- Judgement Vs. Judgment
- Kangaroo Words: Words That Contain Their Own Synonyms
- Know These 9 Commonly Confused Homophones?
- Kudo vs. Kudos
- Learn The Strange Link Between The Letters C And G
- Let’s vs. Lets
- Libel vs. Slander
- Lions and Tigers and Bears, Et Al.
- Loath vs. Loathe
- Loose vs. Lose
- Ludicrous vs. Ridiculous
- Manor vs. Manner
- Marshal vs. Martial
- Master The Secrets Of Crosswordese
- Math vs. Maths
- 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)
- Misogyny vs. Sexism
- Moot Point vs. Mute Point
- Moribund: Visual Word of the Day
- My Apology vs. My Apologies
- Nauseated vs. Nauseous
- No Offense, These Words Used To Be Inoffensive
- Nutritional vs. Healthy
- Ode To The Schwa
- Offbeat Literary Genres To Get Lost In
- Older vs. Elder: Are You Using Them Correctly?
- One of These Words is Not (Exactly) Like the Other
- Overwhelm vs. Underwhelm
- Palette, Pallet, Or Palate?
- Paramount vs. Tantamount
- Poetic Foot Vs. Poetic Meter
- Pore Over vs. Pour Over
- Practice vs. Practise
- Principal vs. Principle
- Proved vs. Proven
- Quiz Yourself On The Meanings Of These Names
- Recuse Vs. Resign: What’s The Difference?
- Reeking vs. Wreaking: What’s The Difference?
- Sherbet Or Sherbert?
- Should I say try and or try to? How about would have or would of?
- Should You Say “Between You And I” Or “Between You And Me”?
- Snuck Or Sneaked?
- Soccer Terms For When The World Cup Is The Only Thing On TV
- Spice Up Your Sexy Language
- Stationary vs. Stationery
- Stop Wasting Breath By Saying These Repetitive Phrases
- Stupider vs. More Stupid
- Supper vs. Dinner
- Supposedly vs. Supposably
- Sure, “ain’t” gets the attention, but what do “am’nt,” “h’aint” and “b’aint” mean?
- Taser: A Surprising Acronym With An Unsettling Story
- Terms To Know When Making A Deal
- That vs. Which
- 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 Letter B Once Had A Much Longer Name
- The Longest Words In The English Language
- The Month Of March And “Marching” Have A Historical Link
- The Most Confusing Words About Dating And Romance
- The Scoop Behind These Weird Words For Gossip
- The Torturous Treadmill And Other Exercise Name Origins
- The United States Of Diversity: Fargo And Its NCVS Don’tcha Know
- The United States Of Diversity: Louisiana Creole
- Their, There, And They’re: Do You Know The Difference?
- Then vs. Than
- 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 Word Pairs Look Like They’re Related, But Surprisingly They’re Not
- These Words Help Explain Why We Need Portmanteaus
- Toward vs. Towards
- Try Tongue Twisters Today!
- Two Nerdy Steps To Take To Improve Your Vocabulary
- Want to meet two extinct letters of the alphabet? Learn what “thorn” and “wynn” sounded like
- Warranty Vs. Guarantee
- Ways To Avoid Using Clichés While Writing
- We’re All Guilty Of Phubbing … Here’s Why
- Weasel Words And Other Ways We Avoid Telling The Truth
- Weird Obsessions You Never Knew Had A Name
- Weird Words For Crazy Urges We’ve All Had
- Well vs. Good
- 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 Are The 100 Most Commonly Used Words In English?
- What Are The Differences Among Too, To, And Two?
- What Are The Different Types Of Thesis Statements?
- What are the most-used words in English?
- What Are Transition Words?
- 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 Does “Literally” Have To Do With “Definitely” And “Totally”?
- What Does “Sophomore” Mean?
- What Does “Wag the Dog” Mean?
- What Does “Wiki” Mean?
- What Does “ZIP Code” Stand For?
- What Does “FICO” Stand For?
- What Does “Musty” Literally Smell Like?
- What Does It Mean To Be “Charged,” “Convicted,” And “Sentenced” For A Crime
- What Does It Mean To Be “Fluent” In A Language?
- What Is A Cliché?
- What Is A Collective Noun?
- What Is Hypocatastasis?
- What Is Literary Apostrophe?
- What Is MLA Style?
- What Is Phonetic Spelling?
- What Is The Difference Between “Anyway,” “Anyways,” And “Any Way”?
- What Is The Difference Between “Gender” And “Sex”?
- What Is The Difference Between “It’s” And “Its”?
- What Is The Difference Between “Might” And “May”?
- What Is The Difference Between “Partly” And “Partially”?
- What Is The Difference Between A Bug And An Insect?
- What Is The Difference Between Archaic And Obsolete Words?
- What Is The Difference Between Attorney And Lawyer?
- What Is The Difference Between Loan, Lend, Loaned, And Lent?
- What Is The Difference Between Snow Flurries And Snow Showers?
- What Is The Difference Between The Words “Immigration” and “Emigration”?
- What Is The Difference Between Torturous And Tortuous?
- What Is The Exact Meaning Of Plagiarism?
- What is the literal meaning of “eleven?”
- What Is The Longest Palindrome In English?
- What Is The Word For Bad Handwriting?
- What Percentage Of English Words Are Derived From Latin?
- What The “X” In “Xbox” Stands For?
- What’s Eggnog?
- What’s In A Name: Tech Talk
- What’s It Called When You Misinterpret Lyrics?
- What’s The #’s Real Name?
- What’s The Difference Between “A While” And “Awhile”
- What’s The Difference Between “Assure,” “Ensure,” And “Insure”?
- What’s The Difference Between “Discreet” And “Discrete”?
- What’s The Difference Between “i.e.” And “e.g.”?
- What’s The Difference Between “Imminent,” “Immanent,” And “Eminent”?
- What’s The Difference Between “Piqued,” “Peeked,” And “Peaked?”
- What’s The Difference Between A Homograph, Homonym, And Homophone?
- What’s The Difference Between Acronyms And Abbreviations?
- What’s The Difference Between Adverse And Averse?
- What’s The Difference Between Mistrust And Distrust?
- What’s The Difference Between Morals And Ethics?
- What’s The Difference Between Socialism And Communism?
- What’s The Difference: Average, Mean, Median, And Mode
- What’s The Name For The Dot Over “i” And “j”?
- What’s The Word For When You Can’t Remember A Word?
- What’s The Difference Between Baloney And Bologna?
- What’s The Word for More Than One Software?
- When Did The Letter U Enter The Alphabet?
- When do you capitalize words like “mother,” “father,” “grandmother,” and “grandfather” when writing about them?
- When Do You Use Whom?
- When To Capitalize “Earth”
- When To Use “Have” Vs. “Has”
- When To Use A vs. An
- When To Use Motherland vs. Fatherland
- Where Did African American Vernacular English Come From?
- Where Does The Phrase “Cut The Mustard” Come From?
- Where is the Middle East? The Near East? The Far East?
- Where The Bleep Did That Curse Word Come From?
- Where There’s Warmth, There’s Also Coolth: Long Lost Word Pairs
- Which Overachiever Is August Named For?
- Who Is Wednesday Named For?
- Who Wrote The Alphabet Song?
- Who’s To Blame For Weird English Spellings?
- Whomever vs. Whoever
- Whose Vs. Who’s
- Why Are A, E, I, O, U, And Y Called “Vowels”?
- Why Are People From The Netherlands Called Dutch?
- 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 Capitalization Matters When You Write Native American
- Why Did “Noon” Used To Mean 3:00?
- Why Do “Flammable” And “Inflammable” Mean The Same Thing?
- 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 Pure Poetry
- Why Is “Christmas” Abbreviated As “Xmas”?
- Why Is “Dog” One Of The Great Mysteries Of The English Language?
- Why Is Marijuana Also Called Pot?
- Why Was Z Removed From The Alphabet (And Then Put Back)?
- Woof, Blaf, Or Voff? How Animals Speak Across The World
- Words That Are Older Than You Think
- Words That Are Their Own Opposites
- 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
- Worldly Ways To Say “Thank You”
- Y.E.S: These Words Are Acronyms
- You can debunk something, but why can’t you bunk something?