Words

'Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries' is a captivating inside look at the job of dictionary making from both a personal and historical angle.

The Breakfast Club may have given us the word wastoid.

While it’s easy to understand how the characters in 'The Breakfast Club' felt, sometimes it wasn’t so easy to understand what they were saying.

Loreless—some lacking in lore—is a rare old word for ignorance.

Next time you feel the urge to make your sparring partner aware of his lack of knowledge, soften the blow with one of these old-timey terms for ignorance.

Learn why internet cookies are like a barista with a good memory.

From sitch to five by five, here are just a few of our Buffy the Vampire Slayer slang terms in honor of the 20th anniversary of the show's debut.

"O.M.G." made its first documented appearance a century ago—in a letter to Winston Churchill.

The story behind one of today's big buzzwords goes all the way back to the secret slang of early 19th century criminals.

Please use these words next time you have to describe a self-obsessed huff-snuff.

Chances are, you’ve probably used an idiom from film or theater in an everyday context—maybe without even knowing it.

The origins of these words are hiding right under your nose.

Looking for a way to spice up your love language? Snuggle up with these 14 idioms, slang terms, and sayings from the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) on how to get it on all over the United States.

'Binge-watch,' 'humblebrag,' and 'Seussian' were all included in the more than 1000 new entries.

Planet Word will be open to visitors of all ages and language backgrounds.

Just because you’re tired doesn’t mean your language has to be.

It’s an error you see a lot these days, and it happens for a variety of reasons.

It predates Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore's on-screen exchange, and the copy machine.

America is a worldwide brand of sorts, but it doesn’t carry the same connotations everywhere.

Many of the names from a galaxy far, far away have their origins in the real world.

The title was made up as a way to avoid commenting on the marital status of a woman.

Here’s a sampling of terms that went overboard. Be their lexical lifeboat.

As languages change, so do pronunciations.

The "Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary" is the first work of its kind to be published in nearly 50 years.

He'd had enuf of the old way. Known for his uncompromising stance on many issues, in the early 1900s Roosevelt used the full power of his position to try to force through several hundred new spelling reforms.

It's human nature to conceive of abstract ideas through more immediate, concrete experiences—which is to say, through metaphors. Most of the words we have for abstract concepts began this way.

5 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of How the Dictionary is Made

8 Slang Terms from The Breakfast Club, Decoded

9 Old Words for Ignorance

Online Dictionary Uses Simple Analogies to Decode Tech Jargon

10 Pointy Pieces of Slayer Slang from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

11 Words Coined 100 Years Ago

'Fake' Etymology: The Story Behind One of the Dictionary’s Most Intriguing Words

12 Words For The Insufferably Vain

6 Idioms That Came From Film And Theater

15 Words With Origins So Obvious You Never Noticed Them

14 Terms of Affection from Across the U.S.

30 of the New Words Added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

A Linguistics Museum Is Coming to Washington D.C.

11 Idioms for Exhausted from Across the United States

Why Do People Say 'Bias' Instead of 'Biased'?

Where Does ‘Ditto’ Come From?

13 Items Labeled “American” in Other Countries

The Origins Behind 8 Star Wars Character and Species Names

What Does 'Ms.' Stand For?

10 Common Words We Don't Pronounce Like We Used To

English-Yiddish Dictionary Breathes New Life Into a Historic Language

When Theodore Roosevelt Tried to Reform the English Language

15 Perfect Metaphors Hidden in Word Etymologies