Wordplay: For the Love of Language | Merriam-Webster

Popular

Weird Words for Autumn Time

Settle in and get cozy with them

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

9 Superb Owl Words

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

15 Words That Used to Mean Something Different

Including the secret history of 'secretary'

10 Words for Lesser-Known Games and Sports

Are you ready for some stoolball?

Your Favorite Band is in the Dictionary

10 bands you can look up and queue up

Words for Lazy People and Laziness

Indolence, Malingerer, Draffsack: the right word for when you just don't have the energy

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

The Words of the Week - October 25

Lookups from the election, Newfoundland, and the frozen foods aisle

12 Words and Phrases for Romantic Relationships

This list warms the cockles of our hearts

Where Does the Expression 'Throw Someone Under the Bus' Come From?

Let's blame the British

'Gaslighting,' 'Woke,' 'Democracy,' and Other Top Lookups

We know you're going to look these up

Top Banana, Kingpin, and Other Nicknames for Important People

Big wigs, big enchiladas, and big shots

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

Know Your Baseball Idioms

Our national pastime. No, the other one.

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

Why 'Love' Means "Nothing"

In tennis. This is about tennis.

12 Words From Basketball

Plus a few terms that never quite made it

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

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

More moons than you can shake a stick at

What is a 'coulrophobe' so afraid of?

Unusual Phobias, Vol. 2

Word History

Quick: Read This!

'Quick' once had a very different meaning

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.

14 Words Inspired by Dogs

A lexicographer's best friend

7 Good Stories That Just Aren't True

No, that's not where that word comes from