Word of the day: dormant \ ˈdɔrmənt \ adjective Dormant: 1. inactive but capable of becoming active 2. in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation 3. (of e.g. volcanoes) not erupting but not extinct 4. (heraldry) lying with head on paws as if sleeping Can you correctly use the word dormant in a sentence? Based on the…
Word of the day: serendipitous \ ˌsɛrənˈdɪpɪtəs \ adjective Serendipitous: lucky in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries Mr. Rodriguez and Ms. Jimenez described a recent night, when clubgoers began dancing in the middle of Broadway to the sirens of a stalled fire truck, as emblematic of the serendipitous moments that sometimes emerge from that chaos. Joseph Bernstein…
Word of the day: whodunit \ huˈdʌnət \ noun Whodunit: a story about a crime (usually murder) presented as a novel, play or movie Still, “The White Lotus” has also captured something rare in the binge-it-all-at-once streaming age: a whodunit that has drawn viewers into a week-to-week guessing game of who gets murdered and who shot the…
It was a different time but you will still laugh when you discover these silly words from the 19th century Flummadiddle Definition: something foolish or worthless Slumgullion Definition: a meat stew Katzenjammer Definition: a hangover Hornswoggle Definition: to trick or deceive someone : bamboozle, hoax Highfalutin Definition: pretentious, fancy Sockdolager Definition: something that settles a matter : a decisive…
Here’s a list of funny sounding words Cattywampus Definition – askew, awry, kitty-corner Bumfuzzle Definition – confuse; perplex; fluster Gardyloo Definition – used in Edinburgh as a warning cry when it was customary to throw slops from the windows into the streets Taradiddle Definition – 1: a fib 2 : pretentious nonsense Billingsgate Definition – coarsely abusive…
The Longest Words in English Most English words longer than about 15-20 letters are scientific, meaningless, or highly specialized, and they tend to be formed by affixation. This is the act or process of adding affixes to a base word to produce a derivative word—in the word affixation, for instance, -ation is an affix. Here…
The English language’s most successful export is a joke. Here’s the history of ‘OK’ Let’s find out the history of the one word that most people use on a daily basis; OK Yep. It’s very probably the most widely recognized word in the world. And its origin story is literally a joke. The definitive text…
Here’s a list of 10 Words from Taylor Swift Songs and some interesting facts about them. Are you… ready for it? Clandestine Song Title/Album: “illicit affairs” / folklore Lyric: “And that’s the thing about illicit affairs / And clandestine meetings and longing stares” Definition: done in a private place or way : done secretly About the Word: Clandestine is an…
The word ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ appeared before Mary Poppins For many people, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and the 1964 movie Mary Poppins are inextricably linked. Indeed, it was this movie that popularized the word. In Mary Poppins supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is said to be simply a word used as “something to say when you have nothing to say,” but the mouthful of…
À l’époque de l’Antiquité, Phobos était une déesse grecque, incarnation de la peur. Les Grecs lui faisaient souvent des offrandes afin de conjurer la peur de partir au combat. Dérivé du nom grec Phobos (φόβος), la phobie désigne une peur irrationnelle et incontrôlable portée sur un objet, un animal ou une situation qui a priori ne représentent…