By Ashley Austrew, Journalist and Writer The end of the school year is coming up fast—as if you needed a reminder! Or do you need a reminder? Are you prepared for that end-of-year flurry of exams and those all-important final papers? Before you know it, it will be time for high school and college students to turn in their work—have you started yours yet? We …
From the Dictionary.com Word of the Year to NASA’s years-long mission to land a spacecraft on Mars, the words that trended in searches November 23–30, 2018 were out of this world (if we do say so ourselves). Ready? Set? Learn! Misinformation It’s official! The Dictionary.com Word of the Year is misinformation, a word we chose after careful consideration. We’re glad to see from your dictionary …
Oh, oh, Scorpio. The eighth sign of the Zodiac, it’s reserved for those born between October 23–November 21. There’s nothing reserved about Scorpios, though. This sign is about passion, excitement, and living life to the fullest … but with a mission. Represented by a stinging scorpion, this is one fierce sign. Just take a look at some of the famous Scorpios: Pablo Picasso, Hilary Clinton, …
There are few figures as recognizable as Santa Claus. His red-cheeked and cheery visage is seen on TV, on posters, and at malls across the United States in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Though his name and image are just about everywhere, do you know why Santa Claus is called by that name—or Saint Nick, Saint Nicholas, Santa, or any of the other similar monikers? …
People often wonder about the difference between macro and micro and their combining forms, macro- and micro-. In particular, it is often unclear how they are used in the context of economics. In this article, we’ll put our money where our mouth is and break down the difference between macro- and micro- while explaining how they are used to mean different things in the words …
The short answer: both gases and gasses are acceptable plural forms of gas. However, gases is much more commonly used and is often considered the standard form. The explanation: in many cases in English spelling, final consonants like the s in gas are often doubled when an ending such as -es, -ed, or -ing is added to the end of the word. For example, the …
by John Kelly, Senior Research Editor at Dictionary.com In our article on virus vs. bacteria, we noted that vaccines can work on both viruses and bacteria. Antibiotics, however, are only effective against bacteria. But what is an antibiotic, exactly, and how is it different from another, frustratingly similar word: abiotic? And how do both of these words compare to antibody and antigen? This is a …
Children are often concerned with issues of fairness: who has more, who was first, and who is best. That’s not fair, they clamor at the first hint of any sort of inequality. Of course, some concepts related to equality can be difficult for children to grasp—but many of these concepts continue to pose thorny problems for us as adults making and enforcing policies and laws. …
If you take a cursory glance at almost any sheet music, particularly for classical music, you will see a hodgepodge of Italian terms such as piano, staccato, crescendo, just to name a few. How did the Italian language come to dominate musical notation? To answer this question, we need to know a little bit about the history of music. The music staff (a set of …