We’re only a quarter of the way through 2019, but already we’ve seen some significant trends in searches on Dictionary.com. Politics, as ever, has propelled many of the lookups, but that’s not the only driver. Sneak peek: Top terms range from pad thai to deep space. Here are the words setting the search trends through March 2019: 1. Exonerate Our top lookup in early 2019 …
When you hear the phrase red carpet, what comes to mind? Chances are that it’s not the questionable red shag from the ’70s that covers the living room in your relative’s aging home. For many people, the red carpet is synonymous with prestige, status, celebrity, ceremony, and a whole lot of pomp and circumstance. Hollywood’s big night, the Oscars, is a prime example. But this …
The English language is famously full of confusing and often contradictory spelling conventions. You know it’s bad when misspell itself is one of the most common misspellings! To identify the words that consistently give people trouble, we analyzed Dictionary.com search data to compile this list of the most commonly misspelled words. For each word, we prepared tips to help you remember how to spell it …
Perhaps you’ve scrolled through social media and seen someone comment: Classic self-own. Greatest self-own of the year so far. Olympics-level self-own. Hall-of-fame self-own. This is both a self-own and a universal truth https://t.co/xbHhqovnnL — John Haltiwanger (@jchaltiwanger) January 30, 2020 What are these self-owns, and why are they epic? To understand what self-own really means, we must first know the meaning of the slang term …
Let’s say that your favorite movie is The Godfather. If you held a copy of it in your hand, would you use the word titled or entitled to say what the name of the movie is? Which word is correct? Are they both correct? In this article, we will break down the difference between titled and entitled, explain how they are typically used, and give …
Maybe you’re a diehard hoophead. Or maybe you fill out your March Madness bracket based on mascots. You might know the difference between a double bonus, a double-double, and a double dribble. Or between a one-and-one, one-on-one, and and one. But do you know… What’s the difference between a flagrant 1 and a flagrant 2? Where does the point in point guard come from? What …
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Do the words embed and imbed mean different things or not? In this article, we’ll look at the meanings of the words embed and imbed, explain whether they’re used in different ways, and also cover the forms embedded, imbedded, embedding, and imbedding. Embed has many different meanings. It’s most commonly used as a verb meaning “to fix into a surrounding mass” (embed stones in cement) …
Legally, to trademark something means to make it so that only one company can make money off of something with that name. You might not realize it, but many of the seemingly generic words we use all of the time are or were registered trademarks. This is often a problem for companies who want to avoid their lucrative trademarks being killed by “genericide,” meaning they …
This September, we released our biggest update to the dictionary ever. Our dictionary editors touched over 15,000 entries in a sweeping effort to reflect the many ways language is evolving. From capitalizing Black to adding a separate entry for Pride to revising references to suicide, our update addresses topics that touch us on some of our most personal levels: race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, …
From the diamond to the big screen to the Beltway, here’s a look at what sent folks scurrying to Dictionary.com the week of August 10–17, 2018! Dinger The Little League World Series is back, and all eyes have been on Alfred Delia—known back in his New Jersey hometown as “Big Al.” The youngster scored a viral video with his on camera introduction, in which he announced …
It’s common knowledge that there are 50 states in the United States of America—and you might even be able to name them all—but did you know that four of them are technically considered commonwealths? You might even live in one of these four and not even know it. Read on to find out if you do, and if so, what that means for how your …
