Using words is a tricky business, trickier than one might expect. In our daily discourses we use verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions, all of which are placed in certain tenses, numbers, clauses, ...

How do words get their meanings? Why does the string of letters (and sounds) "d-o-g" mean "dog" and "c-a-t" mean "cat"? For the most part, meanings are conventions: A group of people (like speakers of ...

Back in grade school, words like "onomatopoeia" and "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" seemed insanely complicated and long. Surprisingly, neither of these is the ...

Words have no intrinsic meaning. That is to say that the words don’t have meaning in and of themselves. Words are symbols of thoughts. We attach thoughts to words. The degree to which those ...

“Lit,” “yeet,” “vibes” – these are the words I hear walking across campus on any given day, and I’m curious: What meaning do these words convey anymore, and more importantly, where did they come from?

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them. Words sometimes have two meanings, as Led Zeppelin sang ...

Discover the Word of the Year 2025 selections from leading dictionary websites like Merriam-Webster, Oxford, and ...

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them. Words sometimes have two meanings, as Led Zeppelin sang ...