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Word History

The History of 'Cynic'

How an ancient philosophical movement devoted to the pursuit of virtue came to describe eye-rolling criticism.

How an ancient philosophical movement devoted to the pursuit of virtue came to describe eye-rolling criticism.

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The History of 'Cynic'

 

How an ancient philosophical movement devoted to the pursuit of virtue came to describe eye-rolling criticism.

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On Contractions of Multiple Words

 

You all would not have guessed some of these

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What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'?

 

How 'literally' can mean "figuratively"

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'All over sudden' vs. 'All of a sudden'

 

Figuring it out at once

play video drive safe ly
Drive Safe: In Praise of Flat Adverbs

 

You don't have to end all your adverbs in -ly to talk right.

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Is It 'Day today' or 'Day-to-day'?

 

What about Day Tomorrow?

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How a Ghost Word Appeared in the Dictionary

 

An imaginary word that snuck into the dictionary

Games & Quizzes

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Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
burrowing owl athene cunicularia tilts its head outside its burrow on marco island florida
Guess the Curious Origins of These Everyday Words Oh, that’s where that comes from…
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