Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a blimp! Or, no, wait, is it a zeppelin? Is there really any difference between these oversized balloons? In this article, we will prove we aren’t full of hot air by breaking down the difference between a zeppelin and a blimp and explaining what airships and dirigibles are, too. Zeppelins and blimps both …
In the United States, the debt ceiling is often a major source of heated debate among members of Congress. Often, the president also finds themself brought into the debt ceiling battle. If you don’t follow politics or economics too closely, you might be wondering what the heck the debt ceiling is. Is it really so important that Congress needs to fight about it seemingly every …
Where in the world do people speak Spanish? If you sat down to make a list, you’d notice right away that the number of countries you can add to it is pretty substantial. Spanish is one of the most prevalent languages in the world, as it’s spoken not only in Spain and Mexico but also throughout North, Central, and South America and the African continent. …
Lights! Camera! Vocabulary! Have you ever been stumped by the language used by film buffs and casual movie fans alike? To help you use and understand all of this language better, we have gathered a collection of essential film and movie terms. These expressions describe both the technical and artistic aspects of the moving picture, from how a film is shot to the way a …
Ableist language doesn’t only consist of slurs. It comes in many forms, including some so familiar that you may have never stopped to think about their origins or implications. The term ableist language has two definitions in this dictionary, accounting for the different things it can refer to: words and phrases that devalue disabled people by using disability language or historical descriptions of disabilities as …
Self-coup, latine, rage farming, petfluencer, nearlywed, hellscape, talmbout, cakeage. Explore the explosive variety of new terms and meanings just added to Dictionary.com. by Nick Norlen, Senior Editor Historically significant moments. Stunningly advanced AI. Very expensive eggs. There is a lot happening out there, seeming as if it’s everything, everywhere, all at once. The events are relentless, but so is the pace with which language adapts …
Now more than ever, there’s a firehose of slang terms flowing from TikTok vids, Twitch streams, Twitter memes, and the other outlets of the extremely online. What’s a menty b? Why are TikTokers adding -ussy to everything? What does it mean to be told to touch grass? You might be sorry you asked, but we’re going to explain it all. We’ll also provide insights into …
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 …
by Nick Norlen, Senior Editor Like everyone else, we’ve been playing with ChatGPT, the program that uses AI to generate text modeled on a vast database of existing writings. But instead of prompting it to produce a natural-sounding passage, we wanted to find out: can it compile unnatural-sounding phrases—ones that don’t exist in any known piece of published writing? The base prompt was simple: “Compose …
As you likely know, English is spoken all over the world. At the same time, there are many different types of English, such as American English, British English, and Australian English. Regardless of whether you live in Chicago, London, Toronto, or Sydney, many English words exist everywhere with the same meaning. However, there are quite a few words used by Americans and Canadians that aren’t …
Comic book creators and filmmakers pick some superhero names just because they sound cool. Other names, though, are chosen for their deep connection with a character or setting. Many of the names from Wakanda, the home of Black Panther, are especially rich in symbolism and significance. Join us as we answer these questions and more: Is there a real Wakanda that inspired the name of …
The world of pasta is filled with endless pastabilities thanks to a vast variety of shapes and sizes. Each noodle shape has a name that might seem random if you’re not caught up on your Italian, but with a little help on the translation, it will all start to make more sense. Think you know it all? We’ll go beyond spaghetti and penne and even serve …
