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, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
