Many of the top entries in Wordsmith.org’s pangram contest had to do with science, including this one: In Kuiper belt, Pluto is judged as dwarf planet, vexing the status quo by making size count. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript...
A listener leaves us a voicemail about a sign his high school science teacher posted in the classroom to encourage students to keep the noise down. It read “Laboratory — more of the first 5, less of the last 7.” As in more of the first...
Todd of Port Jefferson, New York, is looking for a positive term that goes beyond the absence of bias: not merely “un-hate,” tolerance, or colorblindness, but active kinship, curiosity, and regard across difference. One candidate is allophilia...
What do darts, flubs, and maids have in common? Our Quiz Guy John Chaneski puts it to us in a game of rhymes. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Word Group Rhyme Quiz” You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show...
Among Grant’s word-of-the-year picks had to be Higgs boson, that fundamental particle of matter discovered by scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Higgs Boson”...
Is there a connection between the ancient Greek muse and the word amused? No. The muses were mythological figures who inspired the likes of Homer, while amuse comes from the Latin word for “staring stupidly,” as in, “to be...