by Kevin Burton The friends you make later in life might be surprised to learn what you were like as a youth. You’re older, we hope wiser, different is many ways for sure. Some of the words we use go through a similar metamorphosis. Just as you might not be able to …
Tag Archives: dictionary
More Words About Deep Thinking
by Kevin Burton Last Friday I presented some of the words about thinking compiled by Merriam-Webster. Today I bring you the rest of their list. Call this overthinking if you like. It wouldn’t be my first visit to that particular boulevard. Whereas all the words I included Friday are useful, most of …
Thinking Deeply With Merriam-Webster
by Kevin Burton My friend and co-worker on my college newspaper Tim, once suggested that thinking become a new sport. That’s something that should really be pursued. In this thinksport, there should be a penalty for speaking without thinking. Maybe I’ll continue this thought later. For now, I want to share …
Words For The Cranky And Disagreeable
by Kevin Burton God help me not to resemble this post. But today we tune into Merriam-Webster’s “19 words for the cranky and disagreeable,”part of the words at play column on its website. We will not get to all 19, but here are some of the more helpful terms as you seek to …
Words Borrowed From Foreign Languages
by Kevin Burton When I travel to foreign lands such as Mexico or Mississippi, I bring back souvenirs. I’m sure you do too in your travels. Some of the souvenirs we bring back are words and phrases. Today we look at some favorites from the Merriam Webster dictionary. Their list is of words …
Words For Real Life Or For Scrabble
by Kevin Burton “Scrabble” is not a German word meaning “one letter off,” that’s just my little joke. Scrabble also at its essence is not a word game as commonly supposed, but a game of mathematics and strategic placement of little tile soldiers. For the words used in scrabble aren’t words so …
Loud Arguments About Silent Letters
by Kevin Burton When my parents issued me flash cards before kindergarten, I wondered why the work “knife” had a K in it when it didn’t do anything. All these years later I hear from Merriam-Webster that not just e’s and k’s but all the letters of the English alphabet are silent at …
All The Letters Can Be Silent? Shut Up!
by Kevin Burton Silent E is so famous it has a song, we all know about that one. We know how the letter e at the end of man, changes the word to mane, for example. The silent e turns the a from short to long. But did you know all the …
Hey Word Lovers, Have An Awesome Day!
by Kevin Burton Good day you awesome readers! Are you sick yet of the word “awesome”? The term’s overuse is sparking some awesome outrage among speakers of English. Some generational friction emerges when you look into who is cool with “awesome” and who is not. “Awesome” started with the California surfer crowd …
A Few Words For March Madness Fans
by Kevin Burton You hear the word “hoops” what comes to mind? Are you thinking earrings? Are you thinking bureaucracy, extra obstacles you have to jump through? Or are you thinking basketball? No right answer to this, we try to appeal to all types of readers here. But for me, it’s basketball. …
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