Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles from January, 2014
Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by quizzing yourself on vocabulary he used in "I Have a Dream" and "Letter from Birmingham City Jail." Teachers, find more MLK learning resources here.
When Run Run Shaw, a giant of the Hong Kong entertainment industry, died earlier this month at the ripe old age of 106, I took the opportunity to look at a term with which he was intimately connected: kung fu. In the 1970s, martial-arts movies from the Shaw Brothers studio (and its Hong Kong rival, Golden Harvest) firmly planted kung fu in the global consciousness. But I was surprised to learn that kung fu as we know it was actually born on American soil.
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Blog Excerpts
If Nickelodeon's "Sam & Cat" Can't Get a Word Into the Dictionary, Who Can?
On Lumpatious Lexicography
It's a popularly held idea that dictionary writers have the power to add words to the lexicon when in fact language is changed the by people who use it and the job of the lexigrographer is to take note. Here, Vocabulary.com lexicographer Ben Zimmer revisits this distinction in a look at a recent episode of the Nickelodeon teen comedy "Sam & Cat," in which the titular characters take on word-creation head on.
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Tasty MorselsGood stuff from Vocabulary.com
Eight Free MLK Resources for Teachers
Bring Dr. King's legacy to life through his words
Teachers: Looking for creative ways to bring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and words to life? We're featuring eight MLK-focused learning resources to help you craft a lesson around his words.
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Dept. of Word Lists
Is Chris Christie a "Miscreant"? A Quick Current Events Vocab Quiz
Ten words drawn from New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Atlantic coverage.
Stay on top of the New Jersey traffic scandal, Obamacare fallout, NSA hacking, Pacific Rim trade negotiations, and Internet law...from a vocabulary perspective!
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Vocabulary
Announcements
The School Leaderboard Competition Heats Up... and the Word is Getting Out!
Brooklyn Tech brings home the Champions' Banner for December play.
The battle for Vocabulary.com's school leaderboard is getting intense! As New York's Brooklyn Technical High School becomes the latest school to top the hotly contested rankings, the competition is attracting national media attention, with an article in USA Today on how students are rising to the challenge.
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Vocabulary.com News
Behind the DictionaryLexicographers Talk About Language
Selfie's Children: The Productive "-fie" Suffix
To many, the selfie — a picture of yourself, taken by yourself and shared on social media — is a sign of rampant narcissism. I tend to share that belief. Even before I heard the word, I thought there was something mentally amiss with my Facebook friends who posted over a hundred head shots of themselves. However, as a lexicographer, I have to admit the selfie trend is now broader than the self.
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