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1. 

   “She Sheds” And Other Words That We Made Unnecessarily Feminine

   Gendered language isn’t anything new. The English language has repeatedly identified people as male or female through titles and other descriptive words. Think waiter/waitress, policeman/policewoman, and so on. Fortunately, many of these words have been replaced by  gender-neutral terms (server and police officer), but at the same time, some of the latest neologisms assign gender to terms that were previously neutral .  We’re talking about terms …

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   Hey, Boo! Do You Remember These 15 Old Dating Slang Words?

   If you thought dating slang originated with terms like ghosting or breadcrumbing, think again. Popular culture has always included pet names and other unique language to describe all things love and romance. Some of these terms originated in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, while others go back even further than that. But all of them helped lay the groundwork for the interesting and sometimes odd …

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   10 New Dating Slang Words To Know In 2022

   By Ashley Austrew If you’re dating in 2022, the first step is learning how to speak the language. Thanks to the proliferation of dating apps and social media messaging services, dating now has a solid online component. And just like all the other aspects of our online life (text speak, memes, and emojis), it has its own set of rules and vocabulary. When you’re looking …

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   “Cello” vs. “Bass”: Think Deeply On The Difference

   If your cello sounds a little fishy, it might be a bass. Terrible puns aside, it can be easy to confuse the two lowest and largest members of the violin family. But are the cello and bass really all that different? In this article, we’ll break down the difference between a cello and a bass and explain why the bass that’s a member of the …

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   Dictionary.com’s 2024 Word of the Year Is…

   Each year, Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year and short-listed nominees capture pivotal moments in language and culture. These words serve as a linguistic time capsule, reflecting social trends and global events that defined the year. The Word of the Year isn’t just about popular usage; it reveals the stories we tell about ourselves and how we’ve changed over the year. And for these reasons, Dictionary.com’s …

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   Activities To Help Your Kid Decode Words

   One of the foundational reading skills that most children learn in early elementary or primary school is how to decode words. While decode sounds like something spies do, decoding is actually the ability to see a written word and read it aloud. This process is often known familiarly as being able to sound out words when reading. Sound complicated? It’s not, we swear! Plus we’re …

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   Strengthen Your Bonds With 17 Words Of Affirmation

   It’s safe to say we all like feeling loved, but do we all feel and express love in the exact same ways? Not necessarily, according to the experts. If you’ve spent any time online or interacting with pop culture, you’ve probably heard a thing or two about love languages, and one love language specifically: words of affirmation. These buzzy terms have been on our collective …

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   What You Need To Know About “Protester” vs. “Rioter” vs. “Terrorist” vs. “Mob”

   On January 6, 2021, a mob at a protest rally in support of Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol building on the day Congress was set to certify the electoral vote count to confirm Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. As people processed this shocking event, they debated how to refer to the participants in the siege. Should the people who invaded the Capitol, even if …

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   Guess Which Word Each U.S. State Looked Up More Than Any Other

   Every day, Americans from all around the country use Dictionary.com to look up words. One of the things that the lookup data shows is which words were looked up most by residents of each of the 50 states (and Washington, D.C.). As you might expect, many of these most-looked-up words are the same from place to place. (Spelling accommodate is hard no matter where you …

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    Is It Called Presidents’ Day or Washington’s Birthday?

    In the United States, Presidents’ Day is traditionally celebrated during a three-day weekend in February. And the story behind this important commemorative holiday is more interesting than you might think—especially considering Presidents’ Day isn’t the official name of the holiday at all. Presidents’ Day was first established in 1885 to honor the February 22 birthday of our mythic first president and dollar bill cover model, …

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    Examples Of Ableist Language You May Not Realize You’re Using

    Ableist language doesn’t only consist of slurs. It comes in many forms, including some so familiar that you may have never stopped to think about their origins or implications. The term ableist language has two definitions in this dictionary, accounting for the different things it can refer to: words and phrases that devalue disabled people by using disability language or historical descriptions of disabilities as …

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    Compete For Linguistic Gold With These Olympics Words