The Grammarian

Think you can't have a musical with songs about grammar, dictionaries, and language errors? Think again.

After Gay gave laughably bad congressional testimony, it looked for a minute like she wouldn’t face repercussions. But as conservative media showed, opposition to Gay was only heating up.

Bad grammar activates the part of our nervous system that provokes the fight-or-flight impulse we get when being chased, a new study reports.

People aren't using the word "woke" as much anymore. What gives?

By renaming the popular social media platform, Elon Musk has confounded dictionary editors who first embraced the verb "tweet" a dozen years ago.

Trump has been using more donations to pay his legal fees. To keep that information hidden, he released a statement that's so boring and confusing, it's easy to miss.

As I've said before, language doesn’t exist from the top down, and any attempts to impose artificial rules upon it from above (say, by the government) are doomed to fail.

Who is the “girl” in “Hits Different” and “Blank Space”? As with any good song, interpretations abound.

2023 had a lot of terrible words and phrases. As we always do this time of year, let’s cast these terms into the past and never speak of them again in 2024.

The restaurant chain Bojangles, now coming to New Jersey, has changed its final apostrophe three times. Which is correct? (Answer: It's complicated.)

Although the move may feel like validation for the city of Philadelphia, everyone should calm down for one clear reason: Dictionary.com isn’t a real dictionary.

The portmanteau is having a moment. These Frankenwords all work for a simple reason: They’re catchy.

To understand which one is right — or even if one is right — it helps to know a little history on "historic."

The use of "abortionist" and "unborn human" has a clear purpose: Readers are meant to infer that while the fetus is a human, the doctor is not.

Escambia County schools removed more than 1,600 books from school libraries, including multiple dictionaries, over a new law related to sex and gender. I give them extra credit for comprehensiveness.

Whether it's correcting error-filled letters or reminding GOP foes that 'Democrat' is not an adjective, the Maryland congressman is a syntax star.

Can "and" ever mean "or"? The fate of thousands of U.S. prisoners hangs in the balance.

When discussing the case of a white man who shot three Black people in Jacksonville, Fla., two weeks ago, words matter.

Is the Pennsylvania budget impasse over vouchers, school choice, Lifeline Scholarships, or all three? Here are some answers.

Central Bucks' policy bans books that contain "explicit written descriptions of sexual acts." Which was Central Bucks going for — explicit as in unambiguous, or explicit as in sexual?