August 29, 2025
I’ve always been taught that hard should only be used as a physical trait. A table is “hard”; a task is not. So imagine my surprise when I scrolled down on Merriam-Webster and found the following definition for hard: “difficult Read more…
August 1, 2025
Kerfuffle Definition A kerfuffle is “a disturbance or commotion typically caused by a dispute or conflict.” Where Did It Come From? Apparently, “fuffle” is a word all on its own! It’s an old Scottish verb meaning “to throw into disarray” Read more…
June 26, 2025
Accept and except sound almost exactly the same when you say them out loud, but they’re actually totally different words. They don’t mean the same thing at all, and mixing them up in your writing is a pretty big mistake. Read more…
If you went to the neighborhood pool yesterday and today you’re telling your friend about it, would you say, “I swam” or “I swum”? Swim is an irregular verb; if it were regular, the past tense would simply be swimmed. Read more…
June 20, 2025
You might be looking at that title and thinking, “Wait a second . . . aren’t those the same word?” And your confusion is totally understandable. The only difference is one little space—how much does that space actually matter? It Read more…
March 24, 2025
Dictionaries are constantly changing! As people invent new words and change old ones, dictionaries add and update entries. If a new kind of technology is invented, its name needs to go in the dictionary. When new slang words pop up, Read more…
Want to impress your friends with some ridiculously and perhaps unnecessarily long words? This is the list for you! The 190,000-Letter Word Number of Letters: 189,819 Definition: Yep, there’s a word out there that’s almost 190,000 letters long. Technically speaking, Read more…
March 17, 2025
I use the dictionary a LOT. When I type “m” into the search bar, my computer automatically fills in “merriam-webster.com.” Most of the time, the words I’m searching are ones that I haven’t heard before or rarely use, but there Read more…
February 27, 2025
May and might are pretty similar words: they both have to do with possibility and probability. However, these words have their differences. So what ARE those differences, and when do you need to be careful to not mix up the Read more…
February 25, 2025
There are plenty of English words that get mixed up all the time, like lay and lie, ensure and insure, compliment and complement, etc. Now, it’s time to talk about compose and comprise! Both compose and comprise have to do Read more…