Linguistics

The meaning behind the money.

There's a fancy term for forgetting a word—'lethologica.'

The words ‘galaxy’ and ‘lactose’ have a surprising connection.

The connections between words aren’t always as straightforward as the link between ‘run’ and ‘runner’; often, figuring them out requires the subtle unraveling of linguistic evolution, the kind of detective work that makes etymology so fascinating.

Everyone here is someone's late someone.

There’s a historical reason, but there may be a social one as well.

Code-switching goes beyond language—here's what it means and why it happens.

Spoilers for this article without context.

This list of linguistics terms will teach you how to tell your spoonerisms from your mondegreens.

Our 2025 word-a-day calendar covers old-timey slang terms, fascinating phrase origins, and more.

Some languages capitalize several of their pronouns. Some don’t capitalize any of them. English just capitalizes ‘I’—but why?

This background isn't a real cipher (as far as we know).

‘Codebreaking: A Practical Guide’ can teach a beginner how to break into codebreaking (and an expert how to up their game).

From “Milk Drinkers Turn to Powder” to “Indian Ocean Talks,” these funny news headlines will make you say, “Wait, what?”

Why is February spelled the way it is? Delve into the linguistic evolution of the month’s name and its journey from Latin to modern English.

Opening a can of worms, metaphorically speaking, is trying to solve a problem and ending up in more trouble. And the idiom really does refer to actual worms.

Dropping that ‘t’ sound is an example of what linguists call glottalization, or replacing a sound with a pause in the vocal cords.

Use of the word ‘placebo’ in a medical context is more recent than you might think.

What is a placebo? Technically, a Latin phrase meaning ‘I will please.’ It’s also a Catholic prayer and a clever insult.

Nowadays, we use jones to express an intense craving for something. But it used to refer specifically to drugs.

A 2019 study of scientists over-wintering in Antarctica revealed subtle but measurable changes in the participants’ speech.

Vocal fry describes a specific sound quality caused by the movement of the vocal folds—and it’s nothing new.

Is it possible to put a kiss into words?

In English we have a few different ways to write the sound of a kiss: muah, smack, xxx. They get the idea across, but none of them imitate the actual sound of a kiss.

Use these handy tips to get pronouns right.

A pronoun slip can be embarrassing, especially if you pride yourself on being generally good at using the language people have asked you to use. Why do pronoun slips happen, and why do we seem to mess up pronouns more than names or other gendered words?

These linguistic illusions will hurt your brain.

Linguistic illusions—a phenomenon in which your judgment or understanding of a sentence or phrase conflicts with its actual meaning or structure—reveal how we process the world, and remind us that things aren’t always as they seem.