Thank you for celebrating Dictionary Week with us in honor of Dictionary.com’s 28th birthday! Check out all the highlights here! Monday, May 15 Will you be inducted into our Pun Hall of Fame? Dictionary Week kicks off with a very special Punday Monday. Share your favorite puns with us on Twitter—we might add yours to our Pun Hall Of Fame! Plus: Get in on the Wordplay Day …
Beginning in early 2021 and continuing through 2023, there has been a massive upheaval in the labor market. Hundreds of thousands of workers have voluntarily left workplaces they feel are unsafe, do not pay well enough, or to pursue careers more in line with their interests. This phenomenon was termed the Great Resignation by psychologist Anthony Klotz in 2021. Resignation in this context means to …
If you’re one of the many fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’ll know that Dr. Strange has the power to explore the multiverse. He can travel to other worlds and meet alternate versions of himself, maybe even one that isn’t inexplicably charming. In comic books and science fiction, the multiverse refers to a collection of different universes that include our own. But what about …
Doomsday is one of those evocative words that paint a very vivid picture. We define doomsday: “the day of the Last Judgment, at the end of the world; nuclear destruction of the world; given to or marked by forebodings or predictions of impending calamity; especially concerned with or predicting future universal destruction.” As you can see, it’s about as bottom-line as it can get. Other words associated …
Every year on April 22, we celebrate Earth Day and the big blue marble that we all call home. First commemorated in 1970 and now recognized in more than 190 countries, Earth Day is a perfect occasion to think about one of the biggest dangers facing our planet: climate change. As a dictionary, we use this date as an opportunity to document and describe the …
by Alyssa Pereira Not all beers are made equal. That much is made apparent in a walk through any local market anywhere in the US. The majority of beer sections in American grocery stores and neighborhood bodegas aren’t exactly artisan creations. Rather, they’re mass-produced, packaged, and sold by one of just a few international beverage conglomerates. But alongside them, if you look carefully, you’ll often …
If you’re a dessert lover, there’s a good chance that you enjoy both a rich coconut cluster cookie as well as a delicate almond cookie with a buttercream center. But which of these treats is a macaroon and which is a macaron? And did you know they were two different, albeit delicious, things? Although most foodies know the difference between these beloved cookies, many people …
It’s one of the oldest words in the English language. One that’s fundamental not just to our vocabulary but to who we are as humans. And yet it’s a word that continues to be a source of intense personal importance and societal debate. It’s a word that’s inseparable from the story of 2022. Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year is woman. woman [ woom–uhn ] noun …
Language is constantly evolving, but is it always a good idea to say “out with the old and in with the new”? These old English words just might prove otherwise. The phrase “old English”can mean two different things. There’s the official term Old English, which refers specifically to the English spoken between 450 and 1150. But there’s also old English—as in words that are considered …
by Nicole Holliday When I was a kid, I always just assumed that everyone in the world called people like me “mixed,” because in the 1990s in central Ohio, where I grew up, mixed almost always referred to folks like me, who had one black parent and one white parent. The community I grew up in had very few people who identified as anything other …
by Heather Bonikowski, Lexicographer, and John Kelly, Managing Editor Our first major update to Dictionary.com in 2021 looks a lot like … 2020. But that makes a lot of sense. From the pandemic to protests to politics, our language is still catching up to the tremendous change we experienced last year—and Dictionary.com is here to document it all. Our tireless team of lexicographers have touched …