Tonight on the Food Network show "Dinner: Impossible" (May 6, 10 pm Eastern), the chef has to come up with puzzling cuisine to feed contestants at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg questions the aversion to the passive voice inherited from Strunk & White. Listen to his "Fresh Air" commentary or read an extended transcript.

Visual Thesaurus editor Ben Zimmer explains to Washington Post Book World why the claim that English is adding its millionth word lacks credibility.

Forbes.com is running a special report on neologisms — all about how and why new words enter the language. And the Visual Thesaurus family is well-represented, with featured articles by editor Ben Zimmer and contributor Mark Peters.  Continue reading...

Ever wonder how Internet slang mutates, like "LOL" becoming "lulz" and "OMG" becoming "ZOMG"? Grant Barrett has the answers.

Visual Thesaurus contributor Mark Peters explores the phrasal formula "X is the Y of Z" for the online music magazine JamsBio. Find out who earns the title the Ozzy Osbourne of the banking world, or the Barry White of the apocalypse.

Does the addition of words like za and qi to the Scrabble player's arsenal mean that "Z" and "Q" are now overvalued? The Wall Street Journal's Numbers Guy investigates, here and here.