Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles from 2011
Word RoutesExploring the pathways of our lexicon
Trump's "Apprenti": The Return of the Bogus Latin Plural
Was his plural of "apprentice" supposed to be a joke?
Earlier this week, Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich emerged from a powwow with Donald Trump, and they had an announcement to make. Trump told reporters that, at Gingrich's request, he was starting a program for disadvantaged New York schoolchildren, modeled on his competitive reality TV show "The Apprentice." "We're going to be picking ten young, wonderful children, and we're going to make them apprenti," Trump said. That's right, he said apprenti.
Continue reading...
Announcements
The Vocabulary.com Leaderboard: Be a Leader of the Pack!
See how your vocabulary stacks up against others.
As more and more people join in the fun of the Vocabulary.com Challenge, we're always looking for ways to make the experience more "social." Sure, you might think you're doing well with your vocabulary improvement, but how do you stack up against others playing the Challenge? Recently we made some improvements to the leaderboard that you'll see on the right side of your screen when you're playing the Vocabulary.com Challenge, just to get your competitive juices flowing even more!
Continue reading...
Topics:
Vocabulary.com News
Blog Excerpts
What's a Misle?
Have you ever been misled by the spelling of a word into thinking that it's pronounced differently? Like, say, thinking that "misled" is pronounced like "mizzled"? Now you know what a "misle" is. On the Chronicle blog Lingua Franca, linguist Geoffrey Pullum investigates, inspired by a colleague's assumption that "biopic" rhymes with "myopic." Read Pullum's post here.
Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Flash Card: The Elephant Effect
The difference between "affect" and "effect" stumps even experienced writers.
Oh, "effect" and "affect" -- why can't one of you be a noun and the other a verb? That would make life so much easier. But no, you are each a noun AND a verb and thus the inspiration for much head-scratching.
Continue reading...
Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Dennis Baron's Word of the Year for 2011: "Volatility"
When the world is in a bipolar mood, we need a volatile word to capture the zeitgeist.
Dennis Baron, English professor at the University of Illinois and author of the blog The Web of Language, writes:
The Web of Language Word of the Year for 2011 is "volatility." Volatility may not be trendy like occupy or Arab Spring, but it's the one word that characterizes the bipolar mood of 2011 in everything from politics to economics. Continue reading...Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word Lovers
Brief is Beautiful
When it comes to modern dictionary definitions, is brevity the best policy?
The Internet makes it possible to publish dictionaries containing entries of any length, in any format, that are not necessarily subject to traditional rules or conventions. So it's fair to ask: is abandoning the traditional short-form definition, along with the paper it was once printed on, a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater? Or is it a good opportunity to reinvent lexicography?
Continue reading...
Behind the DictionaryLexicographers Talk About Language
The Monstrous Indecency of Hybrid Etymology
There's a long tradition of disparaging words with mixed classical roots.
The word hybrid (from Latin hybrida, "mongrel") commonly refers to animals and plants of mixed lineage, and more recently to vehicles with two or more power sources. In linguistic morphology, it refers to a word formed by combining elements that originated in two or more languages. The process is called hybridization.
Continue reading...
Sign up now (it’s free!)
Whether you’re a teacher or a learner,
Vocabulary.com can put you or your class
on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.