Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles from 2015
Dept. of Word Lists
"Thrice for the United States of America"! GOP Debate or Renaissance Fair?
Vocab choices lend dramatic flair to otherwise technical discussion of policy.
The fourth Republican debate was, in terms of content, an exploration of the future of the United States economy. Linguistically, however, it was a bit of a throwback. Several of the candidates used words and phrases that can strike the modern ear as a bit antiquated.
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Word CountWriters Talk About Writing
When the Wrong Word Just Sounds Better
For all "intensive" purposes, this is the way that language tends to change.
Intensive purposes? Slight of hand? Linguist Adam Cooper contemplates phrases whose meanings are in transition as we replace unfamiliar words fossilized with language that sounds more reasonable to our modern ears.
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Announcements
Extra, Extra! Vocab Bowl Success Makes Great Local News
Follow three simple steps to get community-wide recognition for your school.
Publicizing students' success in the Vocabulary Bowl within your local community is a great way to reward and motivate students while boosting your school's profile. To help you make it happen, we've created a PR Toolkit for educators and school administrators that breaks the publicity process down into easy-to-follow steps.
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Schools across the country, like Margate Middle School in Florida, Midlothian Middle School in Virginia, and Chavez High School in Texas, have received great coverage in their local media about their success in the Vocabulary Bowl. If you're an administrator or educator, you can get your school in on the action by sharing your school's achievements in the Bowl with your local media. Here's how you can make it happen.
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Vocabulary Bowl
During the short-lived media celebrity of the recent "blood moon," I spent some Internet time bringing myself up to speed on the phenomenon—as I suspect many others did. My interest as a lexicographer was to investigate why this celestial event is called a blood moon; thinking in the literal way that I do, and knowing the color of blood, I was perplexed at the disconnect. Blood, of course, is red—deep, vivid, saturated red—and the moon was not. It achieved a kind of Marsy orange, but it was not red.
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Dept. of Word Lists
The Linguisticky Highs and Language Lows of Last Night's Debate
On "catastrophes," "crony capitalism," and those who would "demagogue what we say here tonight."
The Republican debate on CNBC was billed as a discussion of the financial issues facing the nation, but it turned into something much livelier than that description might suggest: a raucous two hours. Candidates interrupted each other and asked for rule clarifications, rebelling against and refusing to answer moderator questions — questions which were often greeted by a loud chorus of audience boos. Continuing our coverage of relevant words in the debate season, we've prepared a list of the top ten most relevant words heard last night; below are a few linguistic highs (and lows) from the contest.
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No matter what generation you were born in, your destiny is to hear incessant blather about generations, as journalists are obsessed by the topic, particularly when it comes to making the younger generation seem like unholy mutants born to usher in the end of days. Allan Metcalf's new word book—From Skedaddle to Selfie: Words of the Generations—is a timely read for era-obsessed readers with a taste for history and, of course, words.
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