Words

From ‘skeletons in the closet’ to ‘graveyard shift,’ here’s how five eerie idioms came to be.

We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?

Know your latte from your cappuccino before you embarrass yourself.

From ‘six-foot bungalow’ to ‘pine overcoat,’ there have been some creative euphemisms for coffins over the ages—and some terms that were surprisingly (and uncomfortably) direct.

What's in a name? A lot of pronunciation mistakes.

From Sean to Anne, these names confound speakers around the world.

We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?

Need another word for ‘moist’ (or some other gross word)? We’ve got you.

It’s kind of weird that ‘ghost’ is spelled with a ‘gh.’

Only a handful of English words start with ‘gh’—what gives?

You better knock, knock, knock ... on wood.

Discover the origins of the classic phrase 'knock on wood,' which could be tied to a Victorian-era children's game or have more direct ties to old pagan traditions.

Do you know all of the abbreviations on this list?

See which text abbreviations have people turning to Google.

In this episode of The List Show, host and Mental Floss editor-in-chief Erin McCarthy breaks down some commonly confused pairs.

It’s probably no #*$@ing surprise who came out on top—but some of the rankings might surprise you.

We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?

‘Bookworm,’ which now implies someone is well-read, once meant that you were a total loser.

These things are pretty weird when you think about them.

From polite offers to emphatic exclamations, English speakers have cleverly twisted negative expressions to mean something rather different.

You know to say, “I’ve got dibs!” but what if someone else says, “I wackie that doughnut,” or “Let's go snacks on it”? You might lose out on some chocolatey goodness. Be prepared by bulking up your dibs vocabulary.

This episode of The List Show is all about why we say what we say—from the poem that gave us ‘albatross around your neck’ to the hands that gave us ‘hands down.’