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craftivism
Craftivism is the act of using craft projects as a form of protest or to advance social causes. The projects involved are most often knitting, crocheting, or other forms of needlework. While the term dates… -
The Most Viewed Emoji On Dictionary.com: Do You Know What They Mean?
July 17 is World Emoji Day, a day to celebrate all of those wonderful smileys and symbols you use to amuse your friends and confuse your grandparents. To celebrate, we’ve rounded up the most popular emoji that our users have been looking up on Dictionary.com since the last World Emoji day. (It was quite a different world then, wasn’t it?) But first, you might be …
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WikiLeaks vs. Wikipedia: Do You Know The Difference?
How well do you know your wikis? Maybe you’ve heard about a site that releases classified material from whistle-blowers. Or maybe you’re looking for an up-to-date source of historical dates and biographical information. Do you turn to WikiLeaks? Do you search through Wikipedia? The confusion is all the more understandable given that these two sites even look alike. Well, wonder no more. We’re about to leak you …
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What’s The Difference Between “Mistrust” vs. “Distrust”?
Trust us on this one. There’s only a slight difference between these two. In general, distrust and mistrust are considered synonyms, both based on the word trust (although centuries apart). As nouns, both words refer to a condition of lacking trust, and are effectively interchangeable. As verbs, well, it’s a bit more complicated, as you’ll see. What’s the origin of trust? The word trust is first …
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“Unalienable” vs. “Inalienable”: Is There A Difference?
It’s safe to say that most of us don’t know the entire Declaration of Independence by heart. However, many of us are familiar enough with the document declaring independence from England to know that at one point, it gets into some inalienable rights that all Americans will have. Or was Thomas Jefferson writing about unalienable rights as he was putting quill to paper? Although these …
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10 Songs You Had No Idea Were Inspired By Literature
Sometimes it’s hard not to hum that song that’s stuck in your head. It’s also incredibly satisfying when you’re able to hum it all the way through. What you may not realize, however, is that sometimes as you hum your favorite earworm, you might be humming about a piece of literature, motifs and all. Take a look at the rock songs below, and see which …
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No One Pronounces These 10 Words The Same
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong famously sang about the controversial pronunciations of words like tomato (to-mah-to?), potato (po-tah-to?), either, neither, pajamas, and others in the song “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” They settled nothing, and people have been debating the right way to say these words ever since. And those aren’t the only words that send people to opposing corners, either. There are a host …
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Where Did The Phrase “Thoughts And Prayers” Come From?
From mass shootings to natural disasters, it seems like every day, there’s a new tragedy on the news. With social media amplifying these stories, more and more people are offering their condolences than ever before. And one of the most popular phrases online? “Thoughts and prayers.” While theories on the history of the phrase “thoughts and prayers” vary, it is often traced back to the …
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Words From Minecraft: What Are Your Kids Saying?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you’ve no doubt heard of the super-popular computer game Minecraft. As of May 2020, there were over 126 million active players of Minecraft monthly. That’s a lot of people—particularly young people. Many adults find the whole Minecraft phenomenon bewildering. After all, why are kids so obsessed with a game whose graphics look straight …
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Paradox vs. Oxymoron: What’s The Difference?
When parents become empty nesters after their kids head off to college, they may be surprised by the deafening silence of their home. The emptiness can be bittersweet as mom and dad find themselves alone together. In the above sentences, these parents are dealing with quite a few contradictions. Are these examples of oxymorons or paradoxes? Or, is an oxymoron a synonym for a paradox? Let’s take …
