It’s easy to confuse viruses and bacteria. They are both extremely tiny, for one thing, and, depending on what kind of bug you get, they can make you sick. OK, “extremely tiny” and “make you sick”? We do have technical words for these things. Viruses and bacteria are microscopic, meaning they are too small to see with the unaided eye. And pathogens are “disease-producing agents,” …
by Rory Gory The letter X is often used to represent the unknown or the indescribable. In English, there are so few words beginning with X that in Samuel Johnson’s famous early dictionary, X was defined as, “a letter, which, though found in Saxon words, begins no word in the English language.” The mathematician and philosopher René Descartes used the letter X to represent variable …
Demonstrations against racism and police brutality have put the words dissent and protest at the center of our vocabulary this year. Dictionary.com has seen a surge of interest in these words, which speak to their relevance to our current times. The death of George Floyd—a Black man who was killed after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes—has inspired worldwide protests that continue …
The question of whether to use disc or disk can be a bit circular: in some cases, one is definitely preferred, but in many cases their use overlaps—meaning they’re often interchangeable. This is because both words typically refer to something round and flat (though not always, as we’ll see). The difference, when there is one, usually just depends on what the established preference is. The …
Sometimes a dictionary is too heavy to carry around for some light reading and too daunting to listen to as an audiobook. For all your language needs from etymology to grammar to more creative ways to curse, check out our recommendations below for the best language podcasts. And, because this is an article about language podcasts, we can’t help but mention our newly-launched Dictionary.com Word …
Here’s the obvious thing about poison and venom: you don’t want either one in your body. But after that, things can get confusing. Although the two words are sometimes used interchangeably in casual use, a distinction is made between them in scientific contexts. In this article, we’ll look at the key differences between poison and venom as well as the adjective forms poisonous and venomous, …
Call it remote learning, online learning, distance learning or homeschooling, there are millions of parents across the country whose children no longer head off to school but rather wake up within the walls of their virtual classroom. While there have always been those parents who choose homeschooling for their children’s education, the COVID-19 pandemic has chosen that option for many who never dreamed they’d (and …
The terms astronomy and astrology are commonly confused, which isn’t surprising, considering they both involve studying the stars and both begin with the combining form astro- (referring to stars or celestial bodies). However, only one of these star-gazing terms refers to a recognized branch of science. In this article, we will state the difference between astronomy and astrology, explain why only one is considered a …
You’ve probably noticed that there’s a lot going on in the world right now, and you may have noticed people using words like concurrent and consecutive to describe these events. That’s fitting, because they’re used to describe things happening at the same time or one after another. It can be easy to forget exactly when each one should be used, so we’re here to help …