The stay-at-home orders of recent months have meant a lot more time to deep-dive into etymologies, and this has led me to reflect on a thing I hadn't noticed as much before: English has a surfeit of expressions for the idea 1 + 1.
Continue reading...
Word Count
Writers Talk About Writing
Why do the best writers have the most emotional intelligence?
May 27, 2020
People with a higher Emotional Intelligence are also better writers. Find out which useful attributes emotionally intelligent writers display.
Continue reading...
Article Topics:
A case recently argued before the US Supreme Court — by telephone! — teaches us a lot about trademarks, generic terms, and domain names.
Continue reading...
Article Topics:
Word Routes
Exploring the pathways of our lexicon
40 Days of Solitude: The Origin Story of "Quarantine"
May 10, 2020
By Peter Barrett
Let's isolate the word quarantine and learn what separates it from the crowd.
Continue reading...
Article Topics:
Automatically create lists of vocabulary from any text
using the Visual Thesaurus VocabGrabber.
January 18th is celebrated as Thesaurus Day to honor the birthday of the author of the first thesaurus, Peter Mark Roget. Get into the spirit by reading our two-part interview with Roget biographer Joshua Kendall here and here. Also check out an ode to the thesaurus penned by Franklin P. Adams here and Johnny Carson's hilarious "Funeral for a Thesaurus Editor" sketch here.
On the first Monday in September, the United States observes Labor Day, while Canadians celebrate Labour Day. If you want to know why labour is the accepted spelling in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries like Canada, while Americans prefer labor (and color, favor, honor, humor, and neighbor), check out this classic Word Routes column by Ben Zimmer.
Article Topics:
This Old House: Dom- Sweet Dom-
April 27, 2020
- 3 Comments
Dennis Baron's "What's Your Prounoun? Beyond He & She" is a Timely Winner
February 27, 2020
- 2 Comments
Why Writers Should Use a Secret Sauce: Tracking
Click here to browse all the articles in our archive by date.
February 24, 2020
- 4 Comments
- Indicates content available exclusively to Visual Thesaurus subscribers.Click here to subscribe today.
Featured Word Lists
- kempt
- austere
- kinetic
- languid
- hirsute
More Top Rated Word Lists:
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know(100 words)
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000(1000 words)
GRE High Frequency Words(334 words)
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"(100 words)
300 Most Difficult SAT Words(300 words)
Power Prefix: anti-(10 words)
Some Helpful Poetry Terms(24 words)
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List(358 words)
OVERHEARD
RECENT COMMENTS FROM OUR SUBSCRIBERS
Why do the best writers have the most emotional intelligence?
Daphne Gray-Grant said,
"One important point to keep in mind, David: Allow more than one day (if you can) for incubation before editing. Often, you will be surprised to see..."
- Yesterday, 4:50 PM
Take 2
Orin Hargraves said,
"Great observation, Paul! And not one that figures in most contemporary vocabularies, but it becomes a little more relatable when we note that the..."
- Monday June 1st, 10:51 PM
Paul H. said,
"How about brace, as a brace of partridges?"
- Monday June 1st, 12:04 PM
Why do the best writers have the most emotional intelligence?
David C. said,
"Thanks, Daphne, for a delightful and even comforting post on some of the traits useful for writing. My emotional intelligence has often been..."
- Monday June 1st, 9:50 AM
What's the Most Beautiful Word?
Stuart said,
"obsequious An adjective which could be appropriately used more often."
- Saturday May 30th, 9:59 AM
This Old House: Dom- Sweet Dom-
Alice M. said,
"is demesne (which is somehow pronounced the same as domain) from the same root? how are they different?"
- Thursday May 28th, 1:59 PM
Why do the best writers have the most emotional intelligence?
Nelson B. said,
"Excellent! What are your top five?"
- Wednesday May 27th, 5:27 PM
Which Came First: The Chicken or the Hen Apple?
Geoffrey BH said,
"Perhaps it's the lime juice?"
- Wednesday May 27th, 3:02 PM
Don H. said,
"I understand the meaning of the word. I just thought the special usage during quarantine required an adjective. Perhaps I am wrong. (As my Grandma..."
- Wednesday May 27th, 2:31 PM
40 Days of Solitude: The Origin Story of "Quarantine"
Thesestars said,
"I have this membership to visualthesaurus.com and access to this content for two years. Today is the first day I paid attention to it and realize what..."
- Monday May 25th, 12:25 PM
POPULAR TOPICS
Lesson Plans
Put the VT to work in your classroom
Stage Directions: the Vocabulary of Theatrical Delivery
November 1, 2013
How can interpreting the language of stage directions enhance students' comprehension of drama?
Continue reading...
