Grammar and Word News

Welcome to the Grammar and Word news section on WritersWrite.com. Here you will find the latest grammar news, information about new words, word usage, word meanings and much more. You can access the grammar section homepage here.

Merriam-Webster Names Polarization 2024 Word of the Year (December 9, 2024): Merriam-Webster has named Polarization the word of the year for 2024.

Quid Pro Quo, Snitty Among Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year (December 10, 2019): Merriam-Webster has released its 2019 Words of the Year and the Word of the Year. Several of them are related to Trump political scandals.

Kim Jong Un's Dotard Insult Sends Americans Scrambling for Dictionaries (September 21, 2017): Kim Jong Un called President Trump a dotard in a new threat forcing millions to look up the word. The word dotard is now trending on Twitter.

Merriam-Webster Calls Out Kellyanne Conway for 'Alternative Facts' (January 22, 2017): Merriam-Webster lectured Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway on what facts are in a tweet today. Conway advocated the use of alternative facts, which are actually falsehoods.

Trump Typo Causes 'Unpresidented' to Trend on Twitter (December 17, 2016): Trump's unpresidented typo trends on Twitter after Trump mistakenly entered it in a tweet about China taking one of our research drones.

Post-Truth is the 2016 Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year (November 21, 2016): Post-Truth is the 2016 Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year

Moist, Crevice and Slacks: Study Reveals the Most Repulsive English Words (May 7, 2016): The word moist is absolutely despised by Americans, as are the words crevice, slacks and phlegm. A new study looks at word avulsion in America.

Brain Fart, Bants and Fur Baby Added to Oxford Online Dictionary (August 31, 2015): The Oxford Dictionaries have added brain fart, bants, fur baby, blockchain and manic pixie dream girl to the online dictionary. They also added beer o'clock for some reason.

Vape is the Word of the Year (November 21, 2014): The Oxford Dictionaries have named vape as the word of the year. It beat out slacktivism and normcore.

Weird Al Yankovic Turns Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines into a Rant About Proper Grammar (July 15, 2014): Weird Al Yankovic does a spoof of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. He turns the raunchy anthem into Word Crimes, a hilarious rant on poor grammar and word use.

The Word Adorkable is Added to the Collins English Dictionary (June 16, 2014): The word that Zooey Deschanel made famous, adorkable, has been added to the Collins English Dictionary.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Adds Over 150 New Words, Including Tweep and Selfie (May 19, 2014): Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has added over 150 new words, including tweep, hashtag and selfie.

George R. R. Martin Tells Conan He Writes Using WordStar 4.0 (May 16, 2014): George R. R. Martin tells Conan that he writes using WordStar 4.0, which is ancient word processing software.

Geocache is First Fan-Voted Playable Word in Scrabble (April 13, 2014): Geocache has become the first fan-voted playable word in Scrabble. It beat out 15 other nominated words.

Oxford Dictionaries Names Selfie the Word of the Year (November 19, 2013): Selfie is the new word of the year, according to The Oxford Dictionaries.

Oxford Dictionaries Online Add Words Twerk, Babymoon and Selfie to its Lexicon (August 31, 2013): Babymoon, selfie, twerk and omishambles are all new words added to the Oxford online dictionary

School District's Error-Ridden Reading List Recommends Authors George Ornell and Emily Bonte (July 13, 2013): Long Island School District send out error-ridden reading list. Students were told to read The Great Gypsy instead of The Great Gatsby.

Oxford English Dictionary Adds Additional Meaning for Tweet to Dictionary (June 24, 2013): The Oxford English Dictionary has added an additional meaning for the word tweet to its dictionary.

Oxford Dictionaries Online Adds New Words Including Photobomb, Mwahahaha and Tweeps (August 23, 2012): Oxford University Press has announced the addition of new words to its Oxford Dictionaries Online.

Bucket List, Gastropub, Earworm, Mash-up Among Merriam-Webster's New Words for 2012 (August 15, 2012): Merriam-Webster has released its list of new words being added to the 2012 update of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.