So you think you can spell? Youngsters in modern spelling bees are expected to memorize a wide range of words, from chemical processes to names of rare animals. Also: In many languages, the word for “mother” begins with the letter M — but not in all...
Two words from the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee prep materials: avahi, a term for a woolly lemur of Madagascar, and saltigrade, which describes spiders and other creatures that have feet and limbs adapted for leaping. Saltigrade is...
If you speak a second or third language, you may remember the first time you dreamed in that new tongue. But does this milestone mean you’re actually fluent? And a couple’s dispute over the word regret: Say you wish you’d been able to meet Albert...
Lachryphagy is literally “tear-eating,” and refers to the way some insects crawl up to the eyes of much larger animals to sip their protein-rich tears. The name of the wine Lachryma Christi means “tear of Christ,” and someone tearful is said to be...
Irish writer Edna O’Brien’s short story “Madame Cassandra” from her book Saints and Sinners (Bookshop|Amazon) opens with a character observing, “I always love the way bees snuggle into the foxglove … for the coolth and the nectar.” This is part of a...
Elena in Mt. Holly, North Carolina, wonders why beeline means “a direct route.” Well, once a bee has gathered sufficient nectar from flowers, she flies in a straight course back to the hive. In The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837-1861...