It’s a very satisfying thing to learn that there’s a word for an experience you didn’t know could be described by a word. Learning that, for example, clinomania is an “excessive desire to stay in bed” ...

How do words get their meanings? Why does the string of letters (and sounds) "d-o-g" mean "dog" and "c-a-t" mean "cat"? For the most part, meanings are conventions: A group of people (like speakers of ...

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 ...

Word meanings can shift radically, just like pronunciation. Called semantic change, a shift in a word's meaning occurs when frequent misuse becomes standard, or when metaphoric use becomes literal.

Word of the Day: Gargantuan - This word has a delightfully literary origin. It comes from Gargantua, the giant king in François Rabelais' 16th-century satirical novel Gargantua and Pantagruel (1534).

The word pococurante is a rare English word that describes a person who does not care much about things. It can be used for someone who feels indifferent or uninterested. The word was created by ...

Cambridge Dictionary chooses one word every year that explains how people think, behave and communicate. The word of the year 2025 is parasocial. This word became important because millions of people ...