For years, we here at Dictionary.com have been working on a pretty ambitious project. We’ve been compiling a list of words that people use in the English language, and for each word that we add to the list, we write a few sentences about what it means. (A neat thing is that some of the words mean more than one thing.) A cool feature about …
If there is one thing that emoji most assuredly are not, it is subtle. The ever popular Loudly Crying Face emoji 😭 and Face with Tears of Joy emoji 😂 are two prime examples of that. When someone uses an emoji—or 10—in a text or on social media, it’s obvious what they mean. Right? Not always. Emoji can be a lot more sly than we …
Wobble. Bumpkin. Goulash. Some words are just funny. There’s something about certain combinations of sounds and syllables that just makes us giggle. But why—and which ones? We want to know: what are the secret ingredients that make some words funnier than others? Luckily, linguists have been asking the same question, digging into the data and producing the kinds of studies that have subtitles like “On …
The Christmas season has arrived, and the signs of it are everywhere. Outside, it’s getting colder, stores are filling with people shopping for gifts, and pretty lights strung around trees and rooftops make the whole world seem magical. The holiday cheer might even spread to your phone. Thanks to emoji, there’s a way to send your nearest and dearest a little bit of the holiday …
There are many different ways to learn new words. You can simply wander through our dictionary or thesaurus until you stumble across a cool new word. Or keep an eye on our Word of the Day and Synonym of the Day for a daily dose of cool words. But what if you want to check out a whole bunch of words at once? Or perhaps …
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 …
Mah jong is a fun and popular game that tasks you with solving a tile-matching puzzle before you run out of moves. But what does the name mah jong even mean? And how can you play mah jong online? Well, pull up a chair and enter our game room because we have all of the answers you seek about this game of tiles and… sparrows? …
If you’ve ever owned a Microsoft Windows computer, there’s a good chance you’ve played a game of solitaire or two. Even if that isn’t the case, you’ve likely at least heard of one of America’s most popular single-player card games. But do you know how old this card game actually is and why we call it solitaire—and also Klondike solitaire? Solitaire is one of 83 …
If you like puzzles, it would be pretty odd if you’ve never run across a sudoku puzzle; it’s one of the most popular puzzles out there. But even if you are a sudoku fan, you might not know what the word sudoku actually means—or, for that matter, where these puzzles came from. (It’s not what you think!) Well, we have the answers to these puzzling …
What’s in a name? Well, it depends on the name. There are thousands of common and popular names in English. Most have their own unique meanings, but a few have more meanings than others. That’s because they happen to overlap with common English words that are found in the dictionary. Take the name Trace, for example, which is commonly used as a boy’s name and …
Q: Do dads always tell dad jokes? A: You tell me—I didn’t know doodads could tell jokes at all! Sorry. We know you have real questions about dad jokes, including: What is a dad joke? When does a joke become a dad joke? Are dad jokes supposed to be funny? And why are they called dad jokes? We’ll answer these questions and more, and we’ll …
Dictionary Week was planned as a celebration of Dictionary.com’s 28th birthday—a word party in honor of all the ways words touch our lives. We loved celebrating with you so much that we’ve rounded up some of our favorite moments and highlights. Cheers! We kicked the week off with Wordplay Day by asking you to share some of your favorite puns—some of which even made it …
