“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” — William Shakespeare Words make a difference. They have meaning. Recently the debate began in Maryland on ...

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 ...

Some time ago, I fell into conversation with a colleague about what we had been reading lately, and the person suggested that I absolutely must give Henry James’s “The Ambassadors” a try. The pandemic ...

These words don’t mean what they once did centuries ago. In Shakespeare’s time, “cunning” simply meant clever or intellectually sharp, without any shady undertones. Today, calling someone cunning ...

The Scripps National Spelling Bee returns this week as students from around the United States show off their smarts at the 95th annual spelling competition. The 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee ...

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 ...