Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles from January, 2014
Tips & Tricks
Riding the Context Wave: The Case for Learning Words from Master Writers
There's more to learning vocab from literature than reading comprehension
There's an assumption held by many that we're supposed to stop reading when we encounter words we don't know and look them up in the dictionary. Maybe our English teachers told us to do this. Maybe we read it in a self-help book. Maybe, in a fit of conscientious intention, we set it as a personal goal. But it's an awfully hard practice to keep up. Chances are we skip over them, riding the context wave as far as it will carry us. What if it turns out that this is actually the best way to go?
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Blog Excerpts
A Popular History of Language Peeves
Jen Doll for "The Atlantic" on the literally-figuratively peeve and more
Language writer Jen Doll takes on the phenomenon of linguistic "peeving" for the Atlantic and collects a list of "classics." See any you recognize?
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
Made Up: Fictional, Fictitious, Fictive, and Factitious
Choose wisely, or risk saying something you don't mean.
When coming up with adjectives for made-up things, we have many to choose among: fictional, fictitious, or fictive, or even factitious. Choose wisely, or risk saying something you don't mean.
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Photographer Dianne Yudelson used the word aviary in calling a recent series featured in The New Yorker an "Antique Aviary." Take one look at the series, and you'll remember the definition of "aviary" for life.
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Dept. of Word Lists
Do "Incendiary" "Diatribes" Make for Good Diplomacy? A Quick Current Events Vocab Quiz
Stay up on events while learning newsworthy vocab
Follow peace talks in Syria, the discredited governor of Virginia's indictment, and continuing coverage of Obama and the NSA....from a vocabularian's perspective!
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Under the HoodThe science of vocabulary building
How Economic Hard Times Change Our Vocabulary
A new study says the boom/bust cycle shows up in literature
Looking for another reason to learn new words on Vocabulary.com? Check out a study released last week on the relationship between literary and economic misery. The news pairs nicely with our List of the Week, "Vocabulary from John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath."
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Topics:
Vocabulary
In the spirit of New Year's resolutions like quit smoking, lose weight, exercise more, each January brings new calls to ban words, the linguistic equivalent of losing weight. But while New Year's resolutions are self-imposed — I decide that an hour on the elliptical watching Sherlock would be better than an hour on the couch with Sherlock and a bowl of chips — word bans tend to be imposed by someone else.
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