Online since 2005, the Eggcorn Database is a repository for non-standard reshapings of words and phrases that make sense in a new way, like writing the word acorn as eggcorn. There are currently 641 entries in the database, many of them contributed by Visual Thesaurus editor Ben Zimmer. Three of his recent entries are signal out (for single out), new leash on life (for new lease on life), and when all is set and done (for ...said and done).  Continue reading...

If you're hoping to navigate a trans-Atlantic language crossing, you better know the sometimes subtle differences between American and British English. Lynn Murphy, an American expat teaching linguistics in Britain, explains some of the more challenging US/UK distinctions, involving such words as moot, quite, please, and pants. Read her whole list in the Emphasis Write Away e-bulletin here.

The latest installment of the Lexicon Valley podcast is on one of our favorite topics: linguistic anachronisms on period TV dramas. Mike Vuolo talks to Benjamin Schmidt, who was inspired by Ben Zimmer's work on Mad Men and Downton Abbey to look more systematically at the language on these shows. Listen to the podcast here, and check out Schmidt's Prochronisms site here.

Today, the Visual Thesaurus is joining the New York Times Learning Network and a host of other organizations and individuals in tweeting our #summerreading plans. And to celebrate this essential activity we're posting several new vocabulary lists for books you might want to read this summer.  Continue reading...

Word Routes, the regular column by Visual Thesaurus editor Ben Zimmer, was selected as one of the top 100 Language Lovers of 2012, and one of the top 20 Language Professional blogs, in a worldwide competition hosted by bab.la and Lexiophiles. Language blogs and sites were nominated and then ranked according to user votes and other criteria. Check out the whole list here.

It's time once again for the Scripps National Spelling Bee! The preliminaries are today, and the nationally televised semifinals and finals are tomorrow (May 31). Visual Thesaurus editor Ben Zimmer will be live-tweeting the competition tomorrow on the VT Twitter feed and reporting on the results here in his Word Routes column. In the meantime, read Ben's observations on tricky spelling here and here, and try the super-addictive Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee!

The podcast Lexicon Valley tackles knotty language issues in an engaging manner. Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield finish a three-part series on language and gender by looking at the struggles over the absence of a gender-neutral pronoun in English. They talk to University of Michigan professor Anne Curzan about the case for singular "they" to fill the gap. Listen to the podcast here, and catch our own interview with Curzan here.