Lately, a particular word game known as Wordle has been all the rage online. If you haven’t heard the good word about Wordle, it’s a game created by and named after puzzle fan Josh Wardle that challenges you to name a particular five-letter word with only six guesses. With each guess, any letter that isn’t in the mystery word is shaded gray, a letter that …
Scrabble is a game that tests both your word knowledge and your relationship with the letter J. A rousing game of Scrabble often requires you to dig deep into your bag of tricks (or a thesaurus) to come up with rare and unusual words to maximize that triple word bonus. But sometimes you need just a little bit more help. What if you have a …
Whether you’re an astrology devotee or a casual observer, you’re probably familiar with sun signs and horoscopes. But what would you say if someone asked what zodiac sign resides in your eighth house? Houses are kind of a big deal in astrology, but we aren’t talking about the ones with roofs and walls. These houses contain zodiac signs and planets that can tell you more …
The word zodiac is used in astronomy and astrology to refer to the band of sky over which the sun, moon, and planets move—as seen from Earth, at least. The zodiac contains a number of constellations, and the sun (or other celestial body) is said to be “in” a constellation when it moves into the portion of the zodiac that includes that constellation. The zodiac …
Birthstones are precious or semiprecious gemstones that are associated with a particular month or sign of the Zodiac. Going back to ancient times, certain gems were believed to bring good fortune if worn during specific months. The origin of this belief is often traced back to the story of the Breastplate of Aaron in the book of Exodus from the Bible. The legendary breastplate was …
When a new year rolls around, many people mark the occasion by making resolutions for all the things they’d like to accomplish in the 365 days ahead. Unfortunately, that may not be the best approach. About 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail, according to U.S. News & World Report, and that’s likely because the “new year, new me” philosophy is really difficult to master. Want …
What’s the difference between a fiddle and a violin, anyway? They seem to look exactly the same, so why the different names? Was the fiddler on the roof secretly a violinist? And what exactly was Nero playing? No fiddlin’ around—just answers to your burning questions about the fiddle and the violin. The words fiddle and violin are two names for the same stringed instrument—fiddle is …
Now more than ever before, public art is on the rise. New murals crop up in cities, large and small, on what feels like an everyday basis, each one breathing new, vibrant life into the streets that were once blank canvases for creativity. The terms graffiti and street art have long been used interchangeably to describe these public art installations—but what should we really call …
Do you know what these winning words mean—all the way back to the first Scripps National Spelling Bee, in 1925?