Now more than ever, there’s a firehose of slang terms flowing from TikTok vids, Twitch streams, Twitter memes, and the other outlets of the extremely online. What’s a menty b? Why are TikTokers adding -ussy to everything? What does it mean to be told to touch grass? You might be sorry you asked, but we’re going to explain it all. We’ll also provide insights into …
If your television or tablet has been taken over by non-stop Disney movies, you’re not alone. Screen time is increasing in plenty of households as parents try to make do with schools closing while working from home. Before you start wringing your hands and getting down on yourself, we’ve got a little bit of good news: Kids’ minds don’t have to be frozen by all …
You don’t hear the word pangs too often. When you do, it’s often in specific contexts, and after certain words, especially birth and hunger. But what is a pang, exactly? And is it different from a pain? In this article, we’ll satisfy your hunger for answers to those questions and to the question of whether the proper phrase is hunger pangs or hunger pains. A …
The words jail and prison are sometimes used interchangeably, but they can imply different things. Commonly held distinctions relate to the size of the facility and how long someone is being held there. In this article, we’ll lay out the differences between casual and official use of these words, explain what they often mean in practical terms, and discuss and define similar terms, including penitentiary, …
The words mass and weight are used both in physics and outside of it to describe how large (mass) or heavy (weight) something is. While these words are often used interchangeably outside of scientific contexts, they do refer to different things. In this article, we will define the words mass and weight, explain how they are used in science to measure different quantities, and discuss …
In the US, the classic image of election day is of people standing in line to cast a ballot inside a voting booth. But this image is changing, particularly with the increase in the use of absentee and mail-in ballots. With this change, there is a lot of confusion—and misinformation—around these methods, which vary widely state by state. What’s more, some people use these terms …
During the holiday season, we hear Merry Christmas countless times. How did we settle on this Christmas greeting? It’s not clear, but in the United States, the word merry is almost exclusively used in the Christmas season. Merry in this phrase means “festive or characterized by rejoicing.” One of the earliest known uses of Merry Christmas is in a December 22, 1534, record of a …
It’s hard to believe, but this month marks 20 years of daily lexical morsels from Word of the Day. What started as a small audience of intrepid logophiles, who braved spotty dial-up connections for their quotidian word fix in 1999, has blossomed into a vibrant community of Word of the Day devotees, who bring context, conversation, inspiration, and personal connections to our selections every day. …
