Starting this year, Scripps National Spelling Bee contestants not only have to spell words correctly. A controversial new rule means they’ll have to answer vocabulary questions, too. Also, when it comes to reading text, do you prefer...
Teresa in Plano, Texas, noticed airport cancellation boards spelling the past tense of cancel both canceled and cancelled. In the United States, canceled with one l is usual, while British, Canadian, and many other English varieties typically use...
Noah Webster originally tried changing the spelling of hard ch words to begin with k, as in karacter, but the shift never caught on, as is usually the case with spelling reforms. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
What Americans call a cold draft, the British call a cold draught. Noah Webster deserves most of the responsibility for changing the British spelling. Regardless of how they’re spelled, both words rhyme with “daft,” not...
If you’re not late for something, you could say that you’re in good season. This phrase, which shows up in Noah Webster’s dictionaries from the 1820s, derives from the agricultural state of fruits and vegetables being in season...
The Century Dictionary contains a list of amended spellings from the late 1800s that only creates more of the confusion it set out to alleviate. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Amended Spellings from 1800s”...