Wordplay

Science & Nature

'Tis the (Flu) Season: The History of ‘Influenza’

The stars aligned so you could feel miserable.

A Cast of 12 Astrological Words

It's written in the stars

9 Superb Owl Words

Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all? We do!

Birds Say the Darndest Things

10 Words (or Phrases) Birds Seem to Be Saying

When Body Parts Are Also Verbs

Head, shoulders, metaphors, and toes

Fruit vs. Vegetable

Are you sure you know which is what?

7 Especially Fitting Common Names for Plants

So you don't mix up your Swiss Cheese plants with your Dutchman's Breeches

12 Words for Signs of Spring

Spring is springing

Flower Etymologies For Your Spring Garden

A bouquet of floral origin stories

What Is a 'Coulrophobe' So Afraid Of?

Unusual Phobias, Vol. 2

'Blue Moon,' 'Wolf Moon,' and Other Moons to Look for Throughout the Year

More moons than you can shake a stick at

'Opossum,' O Lovely 'Possum'

On a marsupial with various names

12 Bird Names that Sound Like Compliments

From the godwits at your favorite dictionary

7 Common Idioms That Come from Chickens

Don't ask us which came first

12 Pairs of Commonly Confused Animal Words

The animal words went in two by two, hurrah, hurrah!

The Many Origin Stories of 'Nerd'

Theories from there to back again

Helium: This Word Brought to You by a Solar Eclipse

And by the Sun, with some help from Greek.

The Stories Behind 10 Flower Names

...and how hard each is to rhyme

'Bated,' 'Shod,' 'Boon,' and 7 Other Fossil Words

When old words show up in modern English

A Tasty Guide to the Parts of a Fruit

Vocabulary is always in season.

What a Hoot!

15 bird sounds, and the birds who make them

Why Is a Medical Expert Called a 'Physician'?

And what about 'physicist'?

Why We Feel 'Sapped'

It has nothing to do with trees.
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