What could words like laurel, dog whistle, lodestar, and self-made possibly have in common? These words and others like them sent hundreds of thousands of folks to Dictionary.com in 2018, searching for answers. Whether you were challenging your friends and family to declare themselves #TeamLaurel or #TeamYanny or playing armchair detective with the words in a cryptic New York Times op-ed, Dictionary.com was here to …
Every year near the start of summer, people around the country celebrate Juneteenth. The holiday is far from new—and it commemorates an event that happened more than 155 years ago—but awareness and interest in Juneteenth has steadily increased over the years. With that awareness and interest comes an opportunity to learn more about the past and present of Black life in America. Here’s the important history …
Strike and boycott may be related terms but they have different meanings. One is used to describe actions taken by a worker; the other refers to a an effort by consumer to take a stand against something. But which is which? No need to protest—in this article, we’ll describe the differences between strike and boycott and provide some example sentences to show how they’re typically used. What does …
Over 15,000 entries updated on topics ranging from race and sexual orientation to climate and internet culture The unprecedented events of 2020, from the pandemic to the protests, have profoundly changed our lives—and language. As we explained in our April additions to the dictionary, COVID-19 rapidly introduced an array of new and newly prominent technical terms to our everyday vocabularies, including asymptomatic, viral load, and …
We heard it over and over again: 2020 was an unprecedented year. (Although 2021 is certainly doing its best to pick up where 2020 left off …) Our users agreed, choosing the word unprecedented as the People’s Choice Word of the Year. 2020 was, without a doubt, an extraordinary year—and it set off an extraordinary year for language, too, including compelling us to name the …
