Decades after I began writing about language, there are still words I avoid out of fear I’ll use them wrong. And worse: Some of these are terms I’ve learned, written about, then promptly forgotten.

iOS 11 and later include a neat built-in dictionary feature that lets you quickly look up the definition of words on your iPhone or iPad, even if an internet connection is unavailable. It's a handy ...

Some holiday words have more than one meaning, like "trim" the tree. And some meanings have more than one word, like "gift" ...

The meanings of words play an integral part of Netflix’s adaptation of “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.” Words that mean more than one thing cause misunderstandings that can lead to ...

The word “munificent” is adjective that can describe someone who is very generous. It can also describe something that is ...

Even if you’re not a full-blown grammar nerd, you’ll find the origins of these words that changed meaning over time completely fascinating The English language is alive—and like any living thing, it ...

Wordplay that involves changing one letter in a given word to produce a different legitimate word can be traced to Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece puzzle called the doublet. For example, given the initial ...

“MISOGYNY” SEEMS a straightforward word. In dictionaries, it is “hatred of women”. In its etymology are the Greek verb misein, to hate, and gyne, women. The word, like the sentiment, has been around ...

Some time ago, I fell into conversation with a colleague about what we had been reading lately, and the person suggested that I absolutely must give Henry James’s “The Ambassadors” a try. The pandemic ...

Thanks to the evolution of language, technology, and lots of hyperbole, these words used to convey a lot more merit, emotion, or simply seriousness than they do nowadays. Ah, “genius.” Once reserved ...

The meanings of words play an integral part of Netflix’s adaptation of “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.” Words that mean more than one thing cause misunderstandings that can lead to ...