Word Matters
Episodes
The Making of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Twelfth Edition
06 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
While the famous Merriam-Webster.com online dictionary is constantly being updated, creating a new edition of our Collegiate Dictionary print book is ...
An Interview with John Morse, Part 3
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Part three of a three-part interview with John Morse, former president and publisher of Merriam-WebsterHosted by Emily Brewster and Peter Sokolowski.P...
An Interview with John Morse, Part 2
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Part two of a three-part interview with John Morse, former president and publisher of Merriam-WebsterHosted by Emily Brewster and Peter Sokolowski.Pro...
An Interview with John Morse, Part 1
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Part one of a three-part interview with John Morse, former president and publisher of Merriam-WebsterHosted by Emily Brewster and Peter Sokolowski.Pro...
Episode 100: How did we get here?
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s our 100th episode, which seemed like a good occasion to answer a listener question of a more personal type: how did we—that is, we three...
Do we repeat ourselves? Very well then, we repeat ourselves.
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A listener questions a tautology in one of our definitions and starts us off on a discussion of all types of repetition and redundancy.Hosted by Emily...
Hackneyed Phrases, Both Old and New
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Writing advice often includes hackneyed phrases we’re supposed to avoid. The phrases we're warned against today are different from the ones of yeste...
Tips for Frenchifying Your French
13 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Whether you're hoping to improve your high school French or just order that croissant with more confidence, we have some tips for you.Hosted by Emily ...
Eggcorns, Mondegreens, and Spoonerisms—Oh My!
06 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A discussion of various kinds of slips of the tongue and errors of the ear.Hosted by Emily Brewster, Ammon Shea, and Peter Sokolowski.Produced in coll...
Traveling Words: Luggage, Baggage, and the Recombobulation Station
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the disconcerting event that your travels by air deliver you, but not what you've packed, to your destination, you may find yourself filing a lost ...
Skunked Words
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes a word, over time, will take on a meaning that doesn’t play very nicely with its original meaning, leaving a person who knows both meaning...
When Dictionaries Drop Words
15 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve discussed how words come to be entered in our dictionaries before, but today we’re going to talk about removing words from dictionaries. Whi...
Wordle Does Not Make Us Nauseous
08 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Some listeners want to know if working with words professionally makes a dictionary editor better, or worse, at Wordle, and another listener wants us ...
The Invention of the Modern Dictionary
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The earliest dictionaries were the fruit of one person’s labor, but the 1864 Webster's Unabridged changed all of that.Hosted by Emily Brewster, Ammo...
An Interview with Jacques Bailly, Official Pronouncer for Scripps National Spelling Bee
25 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jacques Bailly has been the official pronouncer for Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2003—23 years after winning the bee himself. A professor in ...
Nashe's 8 Types of Drunkards Includes No Octopi
18 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An exploration of Thomas Nashe's use of animals as metaphors for those who imbibe heavily; And what *is* the plural of octopus?Hosted by Emily Brewste...
Will 'ect.' become an acceptable spelling of 'etc.'? And if it does, will that be unexplainable or merely inexplicable?
11 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An exploration of spellings—like 'ect.' for 'etc.'—that reflect alternative pronunciations, and the unexplainable favoritism that is shown to 'ine...
Corrections, Clarifications, and Grave Transgressions
04 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A visit to the mailbag provides us with a sartorial use of ‘hipster,’ some schooling on 19th century locomotive technology, and a question about s...
Uncommon Opposites
27 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We all know how to find opposites by removing prefixes: 'unhappy' becomes 'happy'; 'disagree' becomes 'agree.' Easy peasy. But some words resist prefi...
George Orwell's 'Politics and the English Language'
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
George Orwell published his famous essay "Politics and the English Language" in 1946, and we mostly wish he hadn't.Hosted by Emily Brewster, Ammon She...
Linguistic Double Dipping
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
English borrowed lots of words from French. And it liked some of those words so much it borrowed them twice. Hosted by Emily Brewster, Ammon Shea...
All About Abbreviations
06 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If brevity is the soul of wit, are abbreviations the language's best jokes?Hosted by Emily Brewster, Ammon Shea, and Peter Sokolowski.Produced in coll...
The History of 'Whistleblower'
30 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Whistleblowers didn't always tell secrets and hipsters weren't always hip. This episode explains how 'whistleblower' and 'hipster' came to have their ...
What does it mean to be 'at large'?
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
First, we'll look at how 'at large' came to be applied to editors, criminals, and sometimes the world itself. Then, we'll trace the word 'large' itsel...
Dictionary Arcana
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode is all about the small details that make up the dictionary. How do we decide the guide words that appear at the tops of pages? Wha...
A Pair of Suffixes and The History of 'Ditto'
09 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The ending of a word can tell you a lot. Just the slight difference between '-ity' and '-ness' can create a wide variety of distinctions and nuance. T...
On Secretly Gendered Language
02 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Most of the time, there's nothing about an adjective that makes it refer only to any gender. And yet, there are some words that get subconsciously use...
How to Order Adjectives
23 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In English, there's a certain way adjectives tend to fall in line. It's natural to hear something like "brown leather wallet," but "leather brown wall...
When Nouns Act Like Adjectives
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We all know that nouns have a specific job. So do verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and the like. But what happens when they start moonlighting in other rol...
Dipping Into the Mailbag: 'Yeet,' 'Typeface' vs. 'Font,' and 'Lo and Behold'
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We're back to the mailbag this week with some excellent questions, including:Is 'yeet' ready for the dictionary?What's the difference between a typefa...
The History of the English Language (The Podcast)
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
English is often called a "Germanic" language, and yet huge parts of it come from Latin and Greek. So: what gives? Here's the story of English, in 17 ...
Words That Began as Metaphors
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Usually, a word begins with a literal, concrete meaning. (Like concrete, for example.) Then, eventually, it starts being used metaphorically. (Hey aga...
Inside Our Citation Files
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our Springfield office holds a file of 16 million alphabetized scraps of paper, each containing a citation for a word. Some of them are from as far ba...
Getting Philosophical About the Dictionary
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Should we only enter words everyone knows, or does the dictionary need to cover the obscure as well? The answer is, well, pretty philosophical.Hosted ...
The Newest Words in the Dictionary
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We recently added a whole bunch of new words. Here are some of our favorites!Hosted by Emily Brewster, Ammon Shea, and Peter Sokolowski.Produced in co...
The Year in Words 2021
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we told you about our Word of the Year. This week, we'll get into the rest of the words that made up 2021.Hosted by Emily Brewster, Ammon Sh...
Our Word of the Year 2021
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The word 'vaccine' was about much more than just medicine this year. Here's what we looked at to make it our 2021 Word of the Year.Read up on 'vaccine...
Researching Slang (with Ben Zimmer)
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week we're joined by Wall Street Journal language columnist and Spectacular Vernacular podcast host Ben Zimmer! Learn all about Ben's research on...
Why Is There No 'N' in 'Restaurateur'?
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First: someone who owns or runs a restaurant is called a restaurateur. What? How did that happen? Is 'restauranteur' a valid word? We'll get into it.T...
'Decimate': Use It However You Want
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Few words in the English language get people as riled up as the supposed "incorrect" use of 'decimate.' Does it have to keep its Roman meaning of "red...
What It Means to 'Call an Audible'
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How did 'audible' move from the football huddle to general conversation?And why do we have both 'inexplicable' and 'unexplainable'?Hosted by Emily Bre...
'Sneaked' vs. 'Snuck'
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When is it 'sneaked' and when is it 'snuck'? And how about 'dreamed' vs. 'dreamt'? 'Creeped'/'crept'?It's Irregular Verbs Week here on Word Matters.Ho...
The Etymology of Insults
27 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How did 'snake-oil salesman' become a term for a swindler? It's a complex story.How was 'asshat' formed? It's about what you'd expect.Today we're gett...
How Words Are Dropped from the Dictionary
20 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We talk all the time about how words are entered. But what about the ones that fall away? How are those decisions made? Let's get into it.Hosted by Em...
Words Named After Real People
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You know that old cliche, "When they look up X in the dictionary, they'll see your picture"? Well, for these folks, that saying is true. Today we're t...
Taking an Ax—or Axe?—to the 'Podium' vs. 'Lectern' Debate
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're looking at two of the English language's most persistent questions. First, is there an actual difference between 'ax' and 'axe'? What's up...
What's a folk etymology?
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The English language 1) is not logical, and 2) loves to hold onto its mistakes. Enter folk etymology, or, attempts to apply logic to the language, and...
'Possum' or 'Opossum'?
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week we finally address it: the two spellings of everyone's favorite North American marsupial.Plus, we do a deep dive on 'staycation' and various...
How We Approach Compound Words
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're back to the mailbag this week with two great user questions:What makes a compound word worthy of dictionary entry?Is there one correct way to sp...
How Language Evolves (with Grammar Girl)
08 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're joined this week by Mignon Fogarty, aka Grammar Girl, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of her show Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing.Host...
The Brothers Merriam: An Introduction
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we told you about our irascible forefather Noah Webster. But where does the "Merriam" factor in? Here's the story of George and Charles Merr...
Who was this Webster guy, anyway?
11 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dictionary writer. Spelling reformer. Lovable crank?Meet our ancestor—and the father of American English—Noah Webster.Hosted by Emily Brewster, Am...
All About Subject-Verb Agreement
04 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Most of the time, the subject of a sentence and its verb get along just fine. But when they don't, they can be just a tiny bit... wildly confusing. We...
The Invention of 'Introvert' (with Science Diction)
28 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're joined this week by Johanna Mayer and Chris Egusa from the Science Diction podcast to discuss the psychological origins of the word 'introvert'!...
The Political 'Dog Whistle': Loud and Clear
21 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First: what does it mean when someone in politics is accused of sounding a 'dog whistle'? And why does the canine metaphor continue in the term 'red m...
Is 'vice versa' changing? & More Listener Questions
14 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're back to the mailbag this week with some of our favorite recent inquiries!Hosted by Emily Brewster, Neil Serven, Ammon Shea, and Peter Sokolowski...
The Story of a Trending Word
07 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When a lot of people look up the same word on our site at the same time, we generally know one thing: something happened, somewhere. So we do a little...
A Totally Original History of 'Stereotype'
30 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What do French printing presses have to do with overused phrases and unfair opinions? We'll look at how the word 'stereotype' got so... stereo-y. Then...
Is it 'pled' or 'pleaded'?
23 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's one of the biggest questions we get: Is there one "correct" past tense of the verb 'plead'? We'll get into its various legalities. Also: why do s...
What is a word's 'first known use'?
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Finding the first time a word was ever used: seems pretty simple, right? All you have to do is read everything ever written, and then write down where...
Different Words for the Same Thing
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is a simple task "doable," or would you consider it "feasible"? Is it different to "buy" something than it is to "purchase" it? Is this description "r...
The Words We Mispronounce
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Are we language professionals? Certainly. Does that mean we pronounce every word perfectly? Oh, not even close. Today we'll get into the words that we...
The Language of Spy and Detective Stories
26 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Shadowy spies, brilliant detectives, danger and action. The language of spy and mystery thrillers has always been a source of captivation for readers,...
Is it 'further' or 'farther'?
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Further and farther. They're one letter apart; how different could they be? Well, we regret to inform you that English is at it again. Also, let's get...
40. A 'Wicked' Good Episode
12 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How did 'wicked' become THE New England signifier? We'll look into that, along with some more questions from readers.Hosted by Emily Brewster, Neil Se...
39. A Lexical History of 'Jazz'
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to defining an entire musical genre, especially one with as many forms and perspectives as jazz, the work can get pretty tricky. Even th...
38. What Is a Learner's Dictionary?
28 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Wait, shouldn't every dictionary be a learner's dictionary? Technically, sure. But today we're discussing a specific resource: Merriam-Webster's Advan...
37. Can You End a Sentence with a Preposition?
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's one of the most notorious grammar peeves in the entire English language: the commandment that one shall not ever end a sentence with a prepositio...
36. On Jane Austen's Use of 'Condescension'
14 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're going back to our inbox this week to answer some of your most pressing concerns. Such as: what did 'condescension' mean in the work of Jane Aust...
35. 'Fewer' vs. 'Less'
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You might've seen the sign at the grocery store: "12 items or less." Depending on what you've been taught, you might also have considered the sign a g...
34. What Is a 'Retronym'?
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You probably encounter them all the time: new words created to describe the older version of a thing. (Like an acoustic guitar. Or skim milk.) Let's t...
33. Tracing the Origins of Famous Phrases
24 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're catching up on our email! This week, we answer some listener questions about the murky origins of two famous idioms.Hosted by Emily Brewster, Ne...
32. The Story of the Backward Index
17 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Strange but true: in the basement of our Springfield office, we have a file of 315,000 words typed in reverse. Why would anyone want (or do) such a th...
31. Why Is It Called an 'Adam's Apple'?
10 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Adam's apple: it's neither an apple nor is it possessed exclusively by people named Adam. We'll talk about why that is, plus another linguistic co...
30. How We Wrote Our Bilingual Dictionaries
03 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're going deep on dictionary lore this week! Listen in for an interview with editor Peter Sokolowski on how we wrote our French and Spanish bilingua...
29. There Is No Such Thing as "The Dictionary"
24 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
No, we don't mean that we've been ghosts this whole time. (Or do we?)What we're saying is we are not "the" dictionary. We're just one among many, all ...
28. The Onomatopoeia Episode
17 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
O-N-O-M-A-T-O-P-O-E-I-A. The forming of a word in imitation of a sound.First, we'll look at some words that first described a sound (like pop, or buzz...
27. What's the Longest Word in the Dictionary?
10 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is all about dictionary myths and mysteries. Is the longest word the one you think it is? Probably not. Are some words harder to define t...
How do you pronounce 'often'?
03 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First, we examine the common word 'often.' Is one way of saying it more correct than the other? And does the English language delight in making us dis...
25. New Words in the Dictionary
27 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Language never rests, and neither do we. In January 2021, Merriam-Webster added 520 new words and definitions to the dictionary. In this special episo...
24. Questions from You
20 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're going back to our mailbag this week for another round of our listeners' most vexing, irksome, and esoteric linguistic concerns.Hosted by Emily B...
23. How the Ladybug Got Its Name
13 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Etymology meets entomology this week (at last!) as we dive into just how the ladybug got its name. Then, we look at the curious, similar pairing of th...
22. Words That Are Their Own Opposites
06 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How is it possible that a word like 'oversight' can refer to both watchful care and an inadvertent error? Why didn't someone stop this and bring order...
A Holiday Greeting
23 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hello friends!We're taking a short break and will return with new episodes in early January.Have a lovely holiday season!Transcript available here.See...
21. Oops: Words Born Out of Mistakes
16 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Some words are borrowed from elsewhere. Some are created for a purpose. Others are, well, a bit of an accident. Today we're looking at the times Engli...
20. Is it a '180' or a '360'?
09 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We start this week in the rough-and-tumble world of politics (yikes!) with an analysis of the phrase "throw someone under a bus." Where's it from? And...
19. The Word of the Year 2020
30 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What can the most frequently searched words of the year tell us about 2020? On this special edition, Emily Brewster and Peter Sokolowski reveal our 20...
18. Is 'try and' a proper use? Plus More Listener Questions
25 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We're going back to the mailbag for more of our listeners' most pressing and intriguing questions. Plus, we issue our first correction! Exciting!Hoste...
17. How to Read a Dictionary Entry
18 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When you read a definition, what do you see? Is one meaning of a word more important than another? Who decides this, anyway? Join us for a deep dive i...
16. 'Contact' and 'Impact': Acceptable verbs?
11 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For many, the term 'bounty hunter' might evoke the Old West (or at the very least, Star Wars). But is it a much newer word than expected? We'll invest...
15. Why are American and British English different?
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week is all about spelling. Some attempts to reform it have succeeded. (You've probably noticed that words are spelled differently in the US than...
14. Everything Is 'Awesome.' Or is it?
28 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On a dark and stormy night many years ago in Springfield, Massachusetts, a fake word rose to take its place among the living. Or at least among the pa...
13. What's up with 'biweekly'? And Other Listener Questions
21 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You asked, we answered. This week, we go to the mailbag to look into some of the questions, complaints, and vexing language concerns sent in by you, d...
12. A Collection of Obscure Words for People Who Annoy You
14 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If there's one activity that has bonded English users throughout the centuries, it is the creation of new words to describe those who are unpleasant o...
11. Can something be 'very unique'?
07 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Most adjectives can be ranked — something can be good, better, or best — but are there some that can't? Are some adjectives already absolute? Does...
How *Not* to Start a Sentence
30 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You've probably, at some point, been taught that there are certain words that should never, ever start a sentence. Today you will learn that this rule...
9. In Defense of 'Like'
23 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'Like' is a wildly versatile, fascinating word and we're here with guest editor Serenity Carr to give it its due. Seriously. Like, there's nothing wro...
8. A Collection of Obscure Words That Are Pretty Much Useless
16 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes, a word falls out of use through no fault of its own. Other times, the blame lands squarely on the word's shoulders. Here's Ammon Shea with ...
7. 'Matriculate': A Word on the Move
09 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today we travel to the wide world of sports to ask the question (we assume) everyone's been pondering: how did the word for enrolling in a school star...
6. Sorry, But Shakespeare Didn't Create That Word
02 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most cherished and enduring myths about the English language is that its vocabulary was largely populated through the genius of a single ma...