When we think of positive language, anti isn’t the first word that comes to mind. In fact, anti seems like the very opposite of it. The word is a verbal line in the sand—a division between people who are for something and those who are against it. So, it might surprise you to know that the negative anti is being hailed as a more inclusive way to …
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 …
It didn’t take very long for the Netflix reboot of Queer Eye to sneak into America’s chests and start tugging those heartstrings. Now, with Season 4 out on July 19, 2019, we wanted to shine the spotlight on some of the lexical magic of the Fab Five.Spoiler alert … some Queer Eye plot points may be revealed. Grab your tissues and prepare for the ride.For …
Well, it’s official. On March 5, Forbes declared makeup mogul and Keeping Up with the Kardashians star Kylie Jenner the youngest self-made billionaire ever. The publication estimates that Jenner, 21, is sitting on a billion-dollar fortune following three successful years with her business, Kylie Cosmetics, including a lucrative deal with the beauty store Ulta that pushed her fortune to new heights. Of the deal’s success, Jenner told …
by Ashley Austrew After the debut of Marie Kondo’s smash hit Netflix show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, in January 2019, much fuss has been made about her directive of removing items in our homes that do not, as she calls it, “spark joy.” How can household objects “spark joy”? The idea of household objects sparking joy was first mentioned in Marie Kondo’s books, The Life-Changing Magic …
If you’ve ever watched a mobster movie set in New York—and let’s face it, most of them are—you probably think that talking like a New Yorker is as easy as dropping a few Rs and smushing whole sentences into one word. The dialect particular to movie depictions of New York City’s Italian-American community is one of the best recognized in the country, but it doesn’t …
by Ashley Austrew What makes someone an expert? In the days of the internet, it seems like it’s gotten much harder to tell. Social media and the instant expert Social media makes it possible for anyone to have a platform, and that’s given rise to the phenomenon known as the instant expert. These self-appointed authorities on everything from federal policy to last night’s episode of This Is …
What do Cardi B and Vice President Mike Pence’s wife Karen Pence have in common? They both helped put words on the most searched list from January 11–18, 2019! Contumacious Second Lady Karen Pence made headlines January 15 with an announcement that she accepted a job as an art teacher at a conservative Christian school in Virginia. The vice president’s wife landed on the trending …
From Glenn Close at the Golden Globes to Cyntoia Brown in Tennessee, here’s who (and what) had folks searching for meaning on Dictionary.com the week of January 4–11, 2019. Humanitarian President Donald Trump made his first-ever address to the nation from the Oval Office this week, so it’s no surprise that folks tuned in to see what he had to say, or that plenty stuck …
By Jane Solomon The word influencer has been used in English since the mid-1600s, though of course back then it wasn’t a job title. In recent years, the term has become a catch-all for a certain kind of career track that is at the center of a burgeoning but profitable industry. As influencer continues to expand in English and pull new terms and meanings into …
