We been here for years (1828).

Bees?? The Middle English word ‘bede’ meant “prayer.” People started to keep track of their prayers with a string of little balls. We now call those little balls “beads.”

“I did not kill the president. The doctors did that. I merely shot him.” —Charles J. Guiteau, charged with the death of President James A. Garfield, 1882 Let’s get into it. 🧵⬇️

‘Vacant’ means open or free. ‘Vacation’ means freedom from work. Ok, time for a break.

Angeln is a peninsula in Germany. It is thought that a group of Germans called ‘The Angles’ left that area to settle in Great Britain. People started calling the place they settled ‘Angle-land.’ This morphed into ‘England.’ We now speak ‘English.’

Heads up: if you are describing a fox, there’s like a 99% chance that you will use the adjective ‘sly.’

You can curse daylight saving time, daylight saving, daylight savings, daylight savings time, and/or daylight time. All are considered acceptable so go off.

The word is a vampire.

Feel free to call us a 'Dictionscary' today. Or 'MerriAHHH!m-Webster.' Or 'Merriam-SpiderWebster.' Boo.

You didn’t hear this from us, but the Old English word 'sibb' meant “related by blood.” This is where we get the 'sibling.' And 'godsibb' essentially meant “godparent.” Over time, it came to mean "close friend." Now it is something we share w/ close friends... 'gossip.'

art | noun | the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects

which = 🤷‍♀️ witch = 🧙‍♀️

The earliest known example of ‘brain rot’ comes from Henry David Thoreau in his 1854 book “Walden.” “While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?”

'Astronomers' is an anagram for 'moon starers.'

These are your words of the week heist brazen facade protest hodiernal www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the...

Technically, this is a book of spells.

October is the 10th month. ‘October’ means “8th month.” In the first calendar used in ancient Rome, the year had only ten months, starting in March and ending in December. The extra period between December and March was not considered part of the series of months.

‘Cornucopia’ comes from ‘cornu copiae,’ which translates literally as “horn of plenty.” And we all remember the “Fruit of the Loom” logo having a horn of plenty, right? Right??

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY SORRY FOR OUR DELAY WE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THIS WAS A REAL DAY.

The etymology of ‘turtle’ is interesting as shell. 'Turtle' comes from the French 'tortue,' which in turn comes from the Late Latin 'tartarucha.' ‘Tartarucha’ was short for the phrase ‘bestia tartarucha’ which means "infernal beast" or "beast of the nether regions."

We won't tell our actual founders, Andrew Bell and Colin Macfarquhar, about Joan and Brian.

Tuesdays are a battlefield. Mars was the Roman god of war. The Germanic equivalent was Tīw or Tiu (Norse = Tyr). This is why today is called ‘Tuesday.’ And why it’s mardi/martes/martedì in the Romance Languages.

Four. Stars.

Not to be THAT dictionary, but… It’s ‘per se,’ not ‘per say.’ It’s ‘dog-eat-dog world,’ not ‘doggy-dog world.’ It’s ‘hunger pangs,’ not ‘hunger pains.’ It’s ‘one and the same,’ not ‘one in the same.’ It's 'buck naked,' not 'butt naked.'

This is also the reason the abbreviation for ‘hertz’ is ‘Hz,’ as it’s named after Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.

This is our Espresso.

We can't explain it, but putting a little line in the middle of a 7 is writing French.

These are your words of the week indigenous visionary triskaidekaphobia remigrate pococurante www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the...

‘Vowel’ comes from the Latin ‘vocalis,’ which originally meant “vocal.”

Happy National Dictionary Day! We thought we'd celebrate with some new Word Icons. www.merriam-webster.com/video/word-i...

Any dictionary can be a pocket dictionary with big enough pants.

We KNOW you can beat this. www.merriam-webster.com/games/quordl...

What's the difference between 'immigrant' and 'emigrant'?

The most commonly accepted pronunciation is ‘FOH-lee-ij.’ However, there’s no denying that the pronunciations ‘FOH-lij’ and even ‘FOY-lij’ have also staked their claim.

Andrea Sachs just called saying she needs a copy of the unpublished manuscript for the New Merriam-Webster 12th Edition Collegiate Dictionary for Miranda Priestly's twins, even though it isn't being released until November 18???

Bow-wow-wow, yippie-yo, yippie-yay. www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/dog...

Anyone can be wordy. But only a chosen few can be a Word Icon. 10.16.2025.

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Printing presses kept their letters in cases. Capital letters went in the upper case. Smaller letters went in the lower case. This is why we say ‘UPPER CASE’ and ‘lower case.’ Ok, but what did we call them before the invention of the printing press? MAJUSCULE and minuscule.

Here’s a primer on ‘primer.’ It’s pronounced ‘PRIMM-er’ if you mean “a small book” or “a short informative piece of writing.” It’s pronounced ‘PRY-mer’ if you mean “an initial coat of paint.”

hard pass | noun | a firm refusal or rejection of something (such as an offer)

thumb notch | noun | a notch of a size to admit the tip of a thumb cut in the outer edges of the pages of a book for the insertion of index letters or headings

lede = introductory section in journalism bury the lede = hiding the most relevant pieces of a story within other distracting information Allegedly, it’s spelled ‘lede’ to avoid confusion with ‘lead,’ which was the strip of metal that would separate lines of type.

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

grawlix | noun | a series of typographical symbols (such as $#!) used in text as a replacement for profanity

There’s a lot going on, so here is a map of the world’s forests, divided by categories of wood.

This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, but if a sentence starts with ‘per’ it’s usually a bummer.

Mars was the Roman god of war. That’s why we say ‘martial arts,' ‘martial law,' and 'court martial.' Marshall was the Roman god of designer fashion at discount prices. That’s why we have Marshall’s.

Let’s talk about ‘whoa.’ First of all, ‘woah’ is not yet considered an established spelling variant of ‘whoa.’ While ‘woah’ has grown in prevalence since the late 20th century, ‘whoa’ is still about 5 times as common as ‘woah.’

REUNION October 6, 2025 I solved it in 1️⃣8️⃣ moves! ⭐⭐⭐ 🦊 🦔 🎉 www.merriam-webster.com/games/reunion