WORDS

15 Corker Cricket Terms, Deciphered

On May 6, 1751, the first U.S. cricket match was recorded. In honor of that game, and to decipher some of the seemingly complex intricacies for the uninitiated, check out these 15 corker cricket terms.

20 Fierce Dothraki Terms to Know for Game of Thrones

Soon you'll be to ready to vasterat with Khaleesi, Khal Moro, and the rest of the horselord gang.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee Is About to Get More Challenging

No more ties.

10 Devious, Dated Words for Deceptions

No one likes to get bamboozled, but the words for getting duped are creative and vivid.

Why Is the Room Where Talent Waits Called the 'Green Room'?

11 Strange Movie Job Titles—Explained!

Here's what the key grip, best boy, and gaffer actually do, plus the origins of those titles.

Need to Remember Something? Grab a Drawing Pad

Drawing might be the smartest way to encode an idea in your brain.

17 Utterly Charming Articles on Scots Wikipedia

Scots is close to Standard English in the way Norwegian is close to Danish, which is to say, they are pretty much mutually intelligible. It’s possible to read the Scots Wikipedia and understand nearly everything, but there’s just enough unfamiliar vocabul

Crests via Warner Bros Studio Tour London

8 Languages With Different Names for the Hogwarts Houses

The Hogwarts houses in Harry Potter stay pretty much the same in most of translations of the books—but some languages go a different way.

This Web App Identifies Unnecessary Words In Your Writing

If you’re struggling to fine tune your writing or reduce that cover letter to a single page, there’s a web app that can help.

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7 Everyday Phrases That Have Been Rephrased

Did you know it used to be cloud seven instead of cloud nine? Here are six other everyday phrases that used to be very different.

12 Words Etymologically Related to the Sense of Taste

We experience the world through our senses, so it makes sense that our language should reflect those senses. This group of words traces back to the basic elements of taste: sour, bitter, sweet, and salty.

17 Secret Slang Terms Your Doctor Might Be Using

You probably know a handful of medical terms—but what about Code Brown? Or incarceritis?

Defining the Times: 8 Words People Looked Up the Week of 3/20

For the week of March 20, springtime, politics, and tragedy drove people to the dictionary.

11 Playful Pieces of Pinball Slang

Whether you're a pinhead or prone to panic flips, make sure you know what you're talking about during your next turn at the pinball machine.

Defining the Times: 9 Words People Looked Up the Week of 3/13

For the week of March 13, holidays and politics drove people to the dictionary.

Defining the Times: 10 Words People Looked Up This Week

What news sent people to the dictionary this week?

11 Pieces of Piercing Bagpiping Slang

Dust off your feather bonnet and get out that kilt—today is International Bagpipe Day!

25 Words Turning 25 in 2016

If you were born in 1991, not only do you have something in common with the World Wide Web, the Honeycrisp apple, and the Jerry Springer show, you got to grow up with these words that have their first Oxford English Dictionary citations in 1991.

11 Words for People Who Hate Certain Things

Haters gonna hate. And with the Greek roots mis- and miso-, they can hate a whole lot of stuff.

15 Words You Might Not Know Could Be Used As Verbs

Tiger, moon, and buttonhole are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to words you probably didn’t know could be used as verbs—so why not try dropping some of these into conversation?

Why Is It 'Eleven, Twelve' Instead of 'Oneteen, Twoteen'?

English number words are pretty logical for the most part, but eleven and twelve really don’t fit in at all.

33 Crass and Creative Norse Nicknames

Vikings had some really descriptive epithets.

9 Little Translation Mistakes That Caused Big Problems

Knowing how to speak two languages is not the same thing as knowing how to translate. Don't believe us? Here are nine times a little translation mistake turned into a big problem.

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