From mass shootings to natural disasters, it seems like every day, there’s a new tragedy on the news. With social media amplifying these stories, more and more people are offering their condolences than ever before. And one of the most popular phrases online? “Thoughts and prayers.” While theories on the history of the phrase “thoughts and prayers” vary, it is often traced back to the …
Since 1990, the American Dialect Society has held a Word of the Year vote, which is open to the public. This year’s vote takes place on January 8, 2016 in Washington DC. Over the past few weeks, linguists have been discussing nominations for various categories, and the ADS website has a nice roundup of 2015 Word of the Year candidates. Dictionary.com announced our own Word of …
As 2017 comes to a close, it’s time for us to reflect on the words that impacted all of us this year—for better or for worse. At Dictionary.com, the Word of the Year serves as a symbol of the year’s most meaningful events and lookup trends. Our 2017 Word of the Year is complicit. Complicit means “choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable …
It used to be that when we spoke of allies, it was most likely in a military sense, referring to countries formally banded together, usually by treaty, to fight against their enemies. Today, though, the word is used more broadly. What does ally mean today? An ally, ultimately from a Latin verb meaning “to bind to,” is used to describe “someone who supports disenfranchised and underrepresented groups …
In 2015, Dictionary.com saw a number of themes emerge in the words that gained enough traction to be added to the dictionary along with words that trended in user lookups. The most prominent theme across both of these areas was in the expanding and increasingly fluid nature of conversations about gender and sexuality. Additionally, the theme of racial identity led to some of the most …
It’s time for another virtual field trip! During the Covid-19 pandemic, educational spaces like museums, national parks, and NASA are opening their doors for virtual tours. We’ve already “visited” Georgia Aquarium to watch their aquatic animal webcams, and we’ve gotten to know the animals at the Houston Zoo in Texas. This time, we’re headed to NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Langley Research Center …
By Lindsay Barrett We all want our kids to learn what they need to be successful. But guess what most kids want to do? Play! And let’s face it: we adults want to play, too. But learning and playtime can, and should, happily overlap. A growing body of research highlights the many benefits of open-ended play activities like building, pretending, creating, and just getting all-around …
The words to, too, and two sound exactly alike but are used in completely different ways. They are classic examples of what we call homophones—words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings and spellings. Because they’re so similar, they often get mixed up in written language. In this article, we’ll give you everything you need to make sure you choose the right to, …
Deciphering the language of hype Language can be used to avoid discussion just as much as it can be used to communicate effectively. For example: the language of public relations. Public-relations representatives often speak for corporate America, politicians, and the media. They know how to avoid topics and how to not answer the hard questions (tweaking language to fit a particular need at a particular …
These infamously chipper singing groups are called glee because the melding of voices makes everyone happy, right? Actually, joy has little to do with it. Why are they really called glee clubs? Yes, one definition of glee is “open delight or pleasure,” e.g., The students ran out of the building on the last day of school with glee.Glee derives from the Old English glēo, meaning “mirth, jesting, …
