Words matter. Their meanings matter. If words have no meaning, then the ideas we construct from those words have no meaning, either. This is why Webster’s Dictionary records the definitions and uses ...

How do words get their meanings? Why does the string of letters (and sounds) "d-o-g" mean "dog" and "c-a-t" mean "cat"? For the most part, meanings are conventions: A group of people (like speakers of ...

Poets and authors know the value of choosing the right words. It’s not always just about communication, but also about setting a tone or presenting a feeling. Words have meaning, but they also have ...

With analysts and vendors using "technical debt" and other phrases to mean whatever they want them to mean, someone has to defend the language. IT loves buzzwords. But it is now becoming frightfully ...

One of my harmless but mildly annoying quirks is a fascination with etymology, or word histories. Discovering connections between words and the ideas they represent is so exciting that I often have ...

As a Jewish student, the mischaracterization of the intifada as antisemitic delegitimizes actual claims of antisemitism, and fuels antisemitism by associating the genocide in Palestine with our ...