Black Lives Matter is a powerful political and social movement aiming to ensure basic human rights for Black people. Many people are familiar with the name of the movement as it is used amid protests against violence inflicted on Black people involving police officers, including the death of George Floyd in 2020. As the movement has expanded all around the world, many may not know …
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 …
pandemic: life upended, language transformed 2020 has been, well, a lot. At Dictionary.com, the task of choosing a single word to sum up 2020—a year roiled by a public health crisis, an economic downturn, racial injustice, climate disaster, political division, and rampant disinformation—was a challenging and humbling one. But at the same time, our choice was overwhelmingly clear. From our perspective as documenters of the …
JSYK, we’ve added new words and definitions to the dictionary. Over 300 of them in 2019, in fact. This is one case, we think, where JOMO just doesn’t apply. We’re sure you’ve guessed by now that these additions include some new internet slang abbreviations, like JSYK (“just so you know”) and JOMO (“joy of missing out”), that reflect how technology is influencing modern life—and modern …
On August 11, 1973, Clive Campbell—aka DJ Kool Herc—and his sister Cindy organized a back-to-school party for mostly high-schoolers in the Bronx, bringing together the elements that would form the foundation of an art form, a culture, and a phenomenon: hip-hop. On the occasion of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, we set out to capture its trajectory from cultural mashup to source of global influence by highlighting …
2021 was a year defined by the many ongoing impacts of the pandemic and the polarization of 2020—and the various ways we continue to grapple with them. The vastness of such a year could never be fully summarized with a single word. But there is one word that’s intertwined with so many of the things we’ve experienced in 2021: allyship, our 2021 Word of the …
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 …
In 2014, the Ebola virus, widespread theft of personal information, and shocking acts of violence and brutality dominated the news. Vulnerability and visibility were at the core of the year’s most notable headlines. Encapsulating those themes, Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year for 2014 is exposure. The word exposure entered English in the early 1600s to refer to a state of being without shelter or protection. …
We could always cancel our plans or a magazine subscription, but these days it’s people who are up for cancelation. The verb cancel dates back to the days of medieval Latin, meaning “to cross out.” It’s only in the past couple of years that it’s been used to declare people null and void. Everyone from Kanye West to Lena Dunham has now been labelled as “canceled” …
It used to be that when we spoke of allies, it was most likely in a military sense, referring to countries formally banded together, usually by treaty, to fight against their enemies. Today, though, the word is used more broadly. What does ally mean today? An ally, ultimately from a Latin verb meaning “to bind to,” is used to describe “someone who supports disenfranchised and underrepresented groups …
It would be hard to pack more history, context, and visceral meaning into two numbers than we do in the term 9/11. That day changed so much—about the world, modern life, and even the language we use. And so much has changed in the 22 years since. On this anniversary, we’ll look at some of the ways in which the far-reaching consequences of the 9/11 …
