The word “synonym” shows up in print about 18 times more often than the word “homonym,” according to Google’s Ngram Viewer. It’s nearly 13 times more popular than “antonym,” even though “antonym” ...

They’re called “contronyms” or, less elegantly, “auto-antonyms.” They’re words that are their own antonyms—that mean one thing and a polar-opposite thing at the same time—and they include terms like ...

Language is always changing and evolving. New slang emerges with each generation, and sometimes the original meanings of words fall by the wayside as new meanings take form. What words mean something ...

Balustrade and banister both come from the same root: balaustion, Greek for wild pomegranate flower, because of pillars that resemble its curving calyx tube. Sometimes words come so far from their ...

How good is your vocabulary? It might be pretty good, and yet there are almost certainly some words, perhaps many words, that you’re using incorrectly because most people do. To pick out some of the ...

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them. Words sometimes have two meanings, as Led Zeppelin sang ...

Children learn language effortlessly and completely voluntarily. They learn new words miraculously fast. A teenager masters about 60,000 words of their mother tongue by the time they finish high ...