by John Kelly, Senior Research Editor at Dictionary.com During public health emergencies, like the outbreak of the coronavirus, it’s essential to stay informed. But a lot of that information, when it’s not misleading, can be overwhelming and confusing—down to the very words we use to talk about a crisis. What’s COVID-19? Is that the same thing as coronavirus? Is the disease an epidemic or pandemic? …
Update: March Madness voting for round one has ended! See the winners below, and go vote in round 2! Since 1908, March Madness has been used to refer to basketball. Most notably, it describes the NCAA tournament (and all of the surrounding hype) that takes place each year. But here at Dictionary.com, we’re looking to create a little March Madness of our own: we’re hosting …
Was the thought of identifying latitude and longitude on a map in geography class one of your high-key stressors? Well, you’re not the only anxiety-ridden test taker out there! The concept of measuring Earth by coordinates isn’t an overwhelmingly hard concept to grasp, but identifying the difference between these two words can be a little tough. Since they are both units of measurement that help …
By Lyndsey Gresehover As an English/Language Arts and Reading teacher and blogger for almost two decades, the word gap is a fretful phrase that I hear all too often in education. But the real question is … does it really exist? What is the word gap? This idea came from a study done in the 1990s by two psychologists, Betty Hart and Todd Risley, where …
Just like people assume family members are inherently similar because they are related, people assume the same things about words: if they have similar spellings and soundings, they must be alike. As it is with people, the similarities between some related words that look and sound the same end there. Take ambiguous and ambivalent for example. They share the Latin prefix ambi-, which means “both,” …
No one truly needs a watch these days. We all have clocks in our pockets—our smartphones. Another benefit of this technology? The clock on our smartphone automatically changes when we enter a new time zone. Amazing! But, even though we don’t need to pay as much attention to time zones these days, that doesn’t mean they don’t still impact our lives. Let’s synchronize our watches …
In any election, there’s a ton of information to get a handle on. When can you vote? Can you vote early? Where can you vote? And oh yeah, who and what are you voting for? On top of all that, the electoral process in the US can be just plain confusing—no matter how much attention you, ahem, paid in American Government class. There’s the general …
Sometimes we’re at a loss for words, not because we’re speechless, but because no English term lends itself to the situation (or snack) at hand. At those times, we turn to other languages, celebrating them for the concepts we wish we could express so easily in English. Here are some of our favorite words from the Portuguese language. saudade This untranslatable Portuguese term refers to …
Language is always evolving. As culture changes, society innovates, and trends come and go, our language changes right along with it. Every decade, new words are coined in the English language. You will be surprised at how old—or how new—words that you use every day are. So, we’ve picked out our favorite neologisms, from broadcaster to yuppie, that were coined during the past century. Did …
Cheap, expensive, lavish, meager, a steal, or a rip-off. These are just some ways to talk about an item that costs money. But there are two other words used to talk about money as well: economic and economical. These words have two different meanings, despite them both being adjectives. Plus they’re also only two letters off, adding to the confusion. It’s pretty likely you’re mixing …
English is full of homophones, or words that have the same pronunciation but vastly different meanings, origins, and spelling. Some of the most confused homophones include their/they’re/there; affect and effect; and complement and compliment. Let’s add another pair to the list: breach and breech. Are you a whale watcher? A lawyer? A gun owner? You might know the definition of these words. But do you know how …
Why is everyone suddenly tweeting about OK boomer? What is that Baby Yoda meme all up in our feeds about? And who are Becky and Karen, anyways? Oh, we’ve got this. We love keeping up with the latest terms in slang and getting to the bottom of the funniest, strangest, and, yes, thorniest trends in pop culture and social media. We love it so much, …
