Puzzling over the New York Times Spelling Bee, Jordan in Cheyenne, Wyoming, played the word pipped, but was surprised that the game disallowed it. He remembers hearing the word in stories about the historic 1954 Miracle Mile race between Sir Roger...
Book recommendation time! Martha’s reading Dictionary Stories by Jez Burrows, short stories based on example sentences from dictionaries, and Grant recommends Julia Durango’s The Leveler, a techno-thriller for teens about virtual worlds. This is...
A listener in Albany, New York, wonders who decides which historical personages deserve mention a dictionary, and how editors decide which of those people merit a photo or illustration? Grant explains the process by which lexicographers handle these...
Does the term a couple mean “two and only two items”? Nope. Plenty of folks use couple to mean “a small but indefinite” quantity, and to insist otherwise is pure peevishness. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “How Many in a Couple?”...
Grant and Martha talk more about the challenges dictionary editors face when trying to define numbers and colors. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Defining Numbers and Colors” You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha...
frequent flier n. a repeat offender; a recidivist; (generally) a person who regularly or habitually uses or takes advantage of a service. Etymological Note: A generalization of frequent flier, defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as a...
