Wordplay: For the Love of Language | Merriam-Webster

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What do SCOTUS, POTUS, and FLOTUS mean?

The acronyms began as telegraph codes

Top 10 Sophisticated Insults

A list we hope you don't find 'insipid'

More Words with Remarkable Origins

Words With Remarkable Origins, Vol. 2

Terroir, Oenophile, & Magnum: Ten Words About Wine

Raise a glass to some full-bodied vocabulary.

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments

Our maraca shake brings all the hautbois to the yard

10 Words from Taylor Swift Songs (Merriam's Version)

Look what you made us do

'Blue Moon,' 'Wolf Moon,' and Other Moons to Look for Throughout the Year

More moons than you can shake a stick at

9 Superb Owl Words

Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all? We do!

Word Choices

Gabrielle Zevin

Emily Flake

New Yorker Cartoonist

Celeste Ng

Eli Cymet

Video Game Writer/Producer, Cuphead

Emma Straub

Novelist and Children’s Book Author

Arts & Culture

15 Cheffy Words for Chefs (and Everyone Else)

Including 'cheffy'

7 Words from Political Scandals

Behind the smoke-filled rooms

10 Phrases from Shakespeare

Where the "wild goose chase" comes from

Has ‘supper’ always meant ‘dinner?'

Your grandmother might answer differently.

11 Words Used to Great Effect by Edgar Allan Poe

The Vocabulary in the Rue Morgue

Foreign

10 English Words from Dutch

Learn how to tell your caboodle from your caboose

10 of Our Favourite British Words

Please don't whinge about being knackered, you prat.

'In Vino Veritas' and Other Latin Phrases to Live By

Top 10 Latin Phrases

10 Words from Nahuatl, the Language of the Aztecs

Avocado, chocolate, and more

A Guide to the Names of French Sauces

17 saucy terms (and how to say them)

Games & Hobbies

12 Words From Basketball

Plus a few terms that never quite made it

A Player's Guide to 'Q' without 'U' Words

Remember this and win.

These Are Fighting Words

Common terms that come from boxing and wrestling

Are You Ready for Some Football (Words)?

So you can do more than smile and nod when talking about the big game

The Scoop on 'The Proof Is in the Pudding'

A delicious question

Science & Nature

7 Common Idioms That Come from Chickens

Don't ask us which came first

12 Bird Names that Sound Like Compliments

From the godwits at your favorite dictionary

'Opossum,' O Lovely 'Possum'

On a marsupial with various names

What is a 'coulrophobe' so afraid of?

Unusual Phobias, Vol. 2

12 Words for Signs of Spring

Spring is springing

Word History

Quick: Read This!

'Quick' once had a very different meaning

Eavesdrop, Fiasco, and 8 More Words with Surprising Origins

Including some trivia on ‘trivia’

What does it mean to 'endorse' a presidential candidate?

It's kind of like "endorsing" a check

Funner, Stupider, and Other Words That Are in Fact Real

Don't argue with the dictionary

Etymologies for Every Day of the Week

The sun, the moon, four gods, and a goddess.