What did William Shakespeare actually sound like? If you've only heard his plays in modern British or American accents, you're missing a vital piece of the puzzle. In this fascinating deep dive, we ...

According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, "e.g." is taken from the Latin phrase exempli gratia, which translates to ...

I f you’ve ever said something like “I haven’t gotten a parking ticket in years” and then immediately followed it by saying “knock on wood!” while tapping a wooden des ...

Like any self-respecting four-letter word, "nice" has many connotations. Centuries ago, "nice" meant someone was ignorant; ...

What did the ancient Greeks and Egyptians call the pyramids, and what did these ancient words originally mean?

An illustration of a magnifying glass. An illustration of a magnifying glass.

One possible explanation comes with the slang term for food. Spud was used to describe a potato as far back as the 1800s. The ...

Mischievous”. It’s a word that has come to define my week in quite unexpected ways, ever since I happened to answer a ...

Faizan Zaki (speller no. 207) won the 97th Scripps National Spelling Bee by spelling “éclaircissement.” The 13-year-old, who hails from Allen, Texas, readily spelled the word to become the champion in ...