When I turned 13, I entered a part of the life cycle cherished by all Jewish kids and dreaded by their parents. This was the year of bar and bat mitzvahs—my own, but also those of friends, relatives, ...

Once, every middle-class home had a piano and a dictionary. The purpose of the piano was to be able to listen to music before phonographs were available and affordable. Later on, it was to torture ...

Columnist Joan Barron writes, “With the new year we have new words to ponder, like 'sportocrat,' and 'fleek.' The German word 'Backpfeitfengesicht' ...

For the first time in more than 20 years, Merriam-Webster is out with a new edition of its “Collegiate Dictionary.” The 12th Edition includes some 5,000 new words and weighs almost five pounds. WBUR’s ...

Ever belted out a song at full volume, only to discover later that what you’d been confidently singing was completely, ...

How do new words like “safe space,” “dogpile,” and “alt-right” make it into the dictionary? Journalist Stefan Fatsis finds ...