When it comes to writing, this common English word confuses many native speakers who aren’t sure whether to use Earth or earth. Why is this an issue? Earth can be either a proper noun or a common noun. In English, proper nouns (nouns which signify a particular person, place, or thing) are capitalized.
You may not like it, but we all use them. Whether it is in a text message, an instant chat, or a casual email, emoticons appear in written communication to indicate the tone, humor or feeling of a message. As communication moves away from personal interaction to a text-only environment, emoticons fill the void left by the absence of the tone of voice and facial …
Recently, the Detroit Lions’ Jahvid Best was forced out of a football game due to turf toe — Grade 2 turf toe, to be exact. It’s a funky name for what can become an significant injury for professional athletes. First of all, turf toe gets its name because athletes who play on artificial turf face the highest risk of suffering from it. This means football players, rugby …
Want to study garbology? Not sure what garbology is? Take this quiz and find out! If the quiz doesn’t display, please try opening in the Chrome browser. Not sure what some of the definitions of these words mean? We found some items (linked below) to help give a little more context … garbology magisterial cheville hoity-toity tummler carte blanche vogie Tell us your favorite word …
Some people find it easy to tell if someone is from New York or New Jersey the moment they meet them—all they have to do is start chatting! And if the New Yorker’s accent isn’t an immediate giveaway, the phrase on line usually is. In many states across the country, it’s all the same: people stand in line at the grocery store, wait in line …
There’s a running debate among translators about what word is hardest to translate. Obviously, the challenges vary from language to language, with languages that have less in common creating more elusive word to word translations. Let’s acknowledge that determining the hardest word to translate is more of a game than any sort of realistic exercise. That said, here are a few contenders that make the …
It may be nubilous outside, but you’ll feel sunshine and rainbows while taking this new Word of the Day Quiz … we’re sure of it. If the quiz doesn’t display, please try opening in the Chrome browser. Interested in Words of the Day from the past? Check out this one that we brought to life … Not sure what some of the definitions of these words …
The Roman poet Martial who lived in first century AD had a problem: without the protection of copyright laws, he couldn’t stop the other poets of his day from circulating his poems as their own. His only recourse was to write witty verses admonishing and mocking the thieves. Of one rival he wrote, “The book you’re reciting, Fidentinus, is mine; but when you recite it …
Artificial intelligence, or AI, has been a hot topic of late, but what is it? And how does it work? In this article (which was written by a real person and not AI, just to be clear), we will go over some of the key terms connected to AI and related computer processes. We are going to break down the technical jargon to describe how …
While many languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew, add specific accents to the letters or characters throughout their alphabet, the English alphabet has only two letters that include a diacritic dot. This mark is added to a letter to signal a change in either the sound or meaning of a character. What is the additional name of this curious dot that hovers over the ninth …
Are you an enfant terrible? If so, at least use decent vocabulary. Tell us your favorite word from this week below (and share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter)! If the quiz doesn’t display, please try opening in the Chrome browser. Improve your vocabulary with our Visual Word of the Day videos. See this week’s here.