Does a seashell arrangement in the form of the numerals ‘86 47’ amount to a criminal threat to assassinate President Donald Trump, as prosecutors suggest?
Articles on Dictionaries
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Innovations in AI seem to be spurring interest in what is or isn’t real, accurate and human.
An irresistible history of the OED reveals that English is a global language in its sources, its reach and its ownership.
The road to becoming a champion speller is made easier with support from family and friends, but ultimately it depends on an individual student’s commitment to learning, a scholar writes.
It’s been in existence since the 1500s but the Kaaps language, synonymous with Cape Town, has never had a dictionary until now.
It would be ‘aggressively Australian’, holding a mirror up to contemporary society. The creation of the first Macquarie Dictionary, while not without controversies, was a cultural milestone.
A new book, which weaves fiction into the origin story of the Oxford English Dictionary, was declared a hit even before its release. Readers will judge whether it lives up to the hype.
Nigerians can take pride in the recent addition of 29 words of Nigerian origin to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Pronouns rarely, if ever, change. Then along came the gender nonbinary ‘they,’ which was just anointed ‘word of the decade.’
Software tools for South Africa’s Nguni languages may assist with redress and effective communication.
Language is not fixed and meaning is what people make it.
While a lot of slang words come and go (‘good riddance’, ‘amazeballs’), others endure. And exactly why that happens is something of a mystery.
All over the world, people are trying to boil down their experiences of 2016 into a single word. The results speak for themselves.
With the taboo on swearing loosening over the past few decades, will profanity lose its effectiveness in spoken language?
Words from 100 Indigenous languages are in the new edition of the Australian National Dictionary – reflecting a heightened interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
From ‘shiok’ to ‘narcocorrido’ to ‘sweary’, the OED’s new words are a linguistic smorgasbord. They include, for the first time, entries from Singapore and Hong Kong English - and an expression dating back to 1723.
Top contributors
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Honorary Associate Professor in Writing, The University of Queensland
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Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, The Open University
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Associate professor in Computer Science, University of Cape Town
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Professor of Linguistics, Monash University
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Ph.D. Candidate in Linguistics, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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Associate Professor in Linguistics, Macquarie University
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Professor of U.S. Immigration Studies, Amherst College
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Senior Lecturer, King's College London; University of Nigeria
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Roger J. Kreuz is a Friend of The Conversation.
Associate Dean and Feinstone Interdisciplinary Research Professor, University of Memphis
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University of Cape Town
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Adjunct Professor, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe University
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Professor of English, Indiana University
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Professor of Linguistics and English, Florida International University
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Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Languages, and Linguistics, Australian National University