All Episodes
Word Matters — 106 episodes
The Making of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Twelfth Edition
An Interview with John Morse, Part 3
An Interview with John Morse, Part 2
An Interview with John Morse, Part 1
Episode 100: How did we get here?
Do we repeat ourselves? Very well then, we repeat ourselves.
Hackneyed Phrases, Both Old and New
Tips for Frenchifying Your French
Eggcorns, Mondegreens, and Spoonerisms—Oh My!
Traveling Words: Luggage, Baggage, and the Recombobulation Station
Skunked Words
When Dictionaries Drop Words
Wordle Does Not Make Us Nauseous
The Invention of the Modern Dictionary
An Interview with Jacques Bailly, Official Pronouncer for Scripps National Spelling Bee
Nashe's 8 Types of Drunkards Includes No Octopi
Will 'ect.' become an acceptable spelling of 'etc.'? And if it does, will that be unexplainable or merely inexplicable?
Corrections, Clarifications, and Grave Transgressions
Uncommon Opposites
George Orwell's 'Politics and the English Language'
Linguistic Double Dipping
All About Abbreviations
The History of 'Whistleblower'
What does it mean to be 'at large'?
Dictionary Arcana
A Pair of Suffixes and The History of 'Ditto'
On Secretly Gendered Language
How to Order Adjectives
When Nouns Act Like Adjectives
Dipping Into the Mailbag: 'Yeet,' 'Typeface' vs. 'Font,' and 'Lo and Behold'
The History of the English Language (The Podcast)
Words That Began as Metaphors
Inside Our Citation Files
Getting Philosophical About the Dictionary
The Newest Words in the Dictionary
The Year in Words 2021
Our Word of the Year 2021
Researching Slang (with Ben Zimmer)
Why Is There No 'N' in 'Restaurateur'?
'Decimate': Use It However You Want
What It Means to 'Call an Audible'
'Sneaked' vs. 'Snuck'
The Etymology of Insults
EHow Words Are Dropped from the Dictionary
Words Named After Real People
Taking an Ax—or Axe?—to the 'Podium' vs. 'Lectern' Debate
What's a folk etymology?
'Possum' or 'Opossum'?
How We Approach Compound Words
How Language Evolves (with Grammar Girl)
The Brothers Merriam: An Introduction
Who was this Webster guy, anyway?
All About Subject-Verb Agreement
The Invention of 'Introvert' (with Science Diction)
The Political 'Dog Whistle': Loud and Clear
Is 'vice versa' changing? & More Listener Questions
The Story of a Trending Word
A Totally Original History of 'Stereotype'
Is it 'pled' or 'pleaded'?
What is a word's 'first known use'?
Different Words for the Same Thing
The Words We Mispronounce
The Language of Spy and Detective Stories
Is it 'further' or 'farther'?
40. A 'Wicked' Good Episode
39. A Lexical History of 'Jazz'
38. What Is a Learner's Dictionary?
37. Can You End a Sentence with a Preposition?
36. On Jane Austen's Use of 'Condescension'
35. 'Fewer' vs. 'Less'
34. What Is a 'Retronym'?
33. Tracing the Origins of Famous Phrases
32. The Story of the Backward Index
31. Why Is It Called an 'Adam's Apple'?
30. How We Wrote Our Bilingual Dictionaries
29. There Is No Such Thing as "The Dictionary"
28. The Onomatopoeia Episode
27. What's the Longest Word in the Dictionary?
How do you pronounce 'often'?
25. New Words in the Dictionary
24. Questions from You
23. How the Ladybug Got Its Name
22. Words That Are Their Own Opposites
A Holiday Greeting
21. Oops: Words Born Out of Mistakes
20. Is it a '180' or a '360'?
19. The Word of the Year 2020
18. Is 'try and' a proper use? Plus More Listener Questions
17. How to Read a Dictionary Entry
16. 'Contact' and 'Impact': Acceptable verbs?
15. Why are American and British English different?
14. Everything Is 'Awesome.' Or is it?
13. What's up with 'biweekly'? And Other Listener Questions
12. A Collection of Obscure Words for People Who Annoy You
11. Can something be 'very unique'?
How *Not* to Start a Sentence
9. In Defense of 'Like'
8. A Collection of Obscure Words That Are Pretty Much Useless
7. 'Matriculate': A Word on the Move
6. Sorry, But Shakespeare Didn't Create That Word
'Scofflaw' and Inventing Words for Money
How do you even pronounce 'antennae' anyway?
A Collection of Obscure Words That You Might Find Useful
Ice Tea and Semantic Drift
'Irregardless': You Don't Have to Like It
Introducing Word Matters