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Dictionary

Wordnik screengrab

Can’t find that word in the dictionary? Try looking it up in Wordnik

Culture

Online dictionary Wordnik wants to give a home to a million “lost” words that aren’t in traditional dictionaries. But do words like “lookupable” and “budthrill” really belong in a dictionary?

A late-19th century print that called Noah Webster the "Schoolmaster of the Republic."

Four things you never knew about Noah Webster, the ‘forgotten man’ of American history

Culture
A copy of the Merriam-Webster English dictionary.

What happens when the dictionary is just a website? We’ll soon find out

Books
A dictionary on display in the Bates Reading Room at the main branch of the Boston Public Library.

What’s your choice for Word of the Year?

Books
Ben and Jerry's ice cream in Israel is labeled "glida," the Aramaic word for frost. In modern Hebrew, it means ice cream.

A history of Hebrew, told one word at a time

Arts, Culture & Media

Working on the future

Environment

Exploring some of the changes to the human landscape in the next decade, and what some experts are planning to do about them.

New Initiative Preserves Rare and Endangered Languages

At present, there are nearly 7,000 languages being spoken worldwide. However, due to ageing populations and globalization’s English-only emphasis, a language dies out every 14 days. At this rate, nearly half the world’s languages will vanish in 100 years. Very often, these languages are lost without any record: no clues about pronunciation, let alone grammar […]

The World

The new Oxford English Dictionary

Arts, Culture & Media

The Oxford English Dictionary is embarking on a complete revision, and Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Charlotte Brewer, author of “Treasure-House of the Language: The Living OED,� who explains the challenge of keeping the mammoth dictionary up-to-date.