What do you call a long, thin sandwich, and where do you live? [more inside]
posted on Jul 8, 2008 - 140 answers

Complicated Excel formula question involving text-search and Japanese characters. Can you help? [more inside]
posted on May 27, 2008 - 2 answers

What are some interesting, uncommon "vocabulary" words that you use regularly or semi-regularly? [more inside]
posted on Apr 22, 2008 - 90 answers

The word "pictured" means to imagine the way something looks. Is there a similar single word for imagining the way something sounds? How about in languages other than English?
posted on Apr 6, 2008 - 11 answers

As part of a demo my professor brought out some wire cutters and said as an aside "we won't use the other name for them, because that's not a nice thing to be saying". What's this other name?
posted on Apr 1, 2008 - 19 answers

Title of a specific member of a design team [more inside]
posted on Mar 16, 2008 - 22 answers

I'm looking for a program to help me revise foreign-language vocabulary. [more inside]
posted on Feb 2, 2008 - 8 answers

Is there a word for: expecting to feel grief or ache of conscience and then not feeling it? [more inside]
posted on Jan 23, 2008 - 22 answers

If toes and fingers are digits, and arms and legs are appendages (limbs, extremities), what's the general anatomical term for hands and feet?
posted on Dec 17, 2007 - 14 answers

What's the word for a propeller beanie? [more inside]
posted on Dec 14, 2007 - 13 answers

Seeking a word: Is there a term other than "euphemism" for couching an insult in fancy-sounding words, so your insult sounds less harsh to the inattentive ear? [more inside]
posted on Dec 12, 2007 - 63 answers

I am looking for a specific poster, and any information about where I could find one would be greatly appreciated. It's a poster with colorful illustrations or photographs of equipment found in a radio station (mics, headphones, midis, volume control, etc.) and all the vocabulary is in French. I know such a thing may be impossible to find, but I need to try.
posted on Dec 6, 2007 - 0 answers

What are some cool Words of the Week for my kids' bookshop? [more inside]
posted on Dec 6, 2007 - 26 answers

How can I increase my descriptive vocabulary, particularly for the purpose of tagging photos? [more inside]
posted on Nov 21, 2007 - 13 answers

What's a good word for 'a spatially or geographically incongruous person/event/object', as an analogue to anachronism, which is 'temporally incongruous'? (New words okay) [more inside]
posted on Oct 30, 2007 - 18 answers

Aerodrome/Airport, Vale/Valley: Today I ran into both these sets of words. The dictionary thinks that they are used interchangeably, but friends have gone to great lengths to give detailed (and entertainingly contradictory) distinctions between each member of these pairs. So now I ask the hivemind: How DO these words differ? When IS each more appropriate than the other?
posted on Oct 7, 2007 - 14 answers

Flashcard program for OSX with Palm integration? [more inside]
posted on Aug 28, 2007 - 2 answers

I need a word! [more inside]
posted on Aug 19, 2007 - 35 answers

Index card quest! I'm looking for a very particular kind I've seen in the past: a small (smaller than standard 3"-by-5", like 2"-by-1"!), possibly pastel-colored set of cards that come on a single, small binder ring (not spiral-bound!) and are enclosed in a plastic cover (not a fabric one!), almost certainly with a snap. [more inside]
posted on Aug 4, 2007 - 12 answers

Have you ever learned a new word, or heard a famous quote or something and for the next few weeks you see or hear this new thing again, sometimes repeatedly? Is there a name for that?
posted on May 21, 2007 - 19 answers

Is there any good software/Firefox add-on/other system to drill myself in vocabulary for a standardized test? [more inside]
posted on Apr 29, 2007 - 6 answers

And I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George! Somewhere I read that there was a specific word in some language to describe the feeling of restraining overwhelming affection because the urge to hug and squeeze with all one's might could actually harm the subject, e.g. puppies, infants, petite girlfriends. I've searched all over with no luck. Ring any bells?
posted on Apr 23, 2007 - 27 answers

Vocabulary filter: if items 1,2,3,4 together bring about A, then 1,2,3,4 can be called the "prerequisites" of A. If any one or more of 1,2,3,4 bring about A, but not necessarily all, what name would I use for 1,2,3,4 ? [more inside]
posted on Apr 5, 2007 - 24 answers

What are the best (free) online exercises to prepare for the GRE? [more inside]
posted on Feb 9, 2007 - 6 answers

Is there a term for being in love with the concept of love? [more inside]
posted on Jan 19, 2007 - 13 answers

How can I speed up my thought processes in a foreign language? [more inside]
posted on Dec 22, 2006 - 21 answers

How to name engineering widgets? [more inside]
posted on Dec 1, 2006 - 7 answers

I'm looking for a children's book, but I have forgotten most of the salient details, including the title and author. It involved the meanderings of a worm. Each page had a sentence that included a word that was being taught to the reader. The only specific vocabulary word from the book I remember is "erudite". The book pages were black or dark with highly stylized illustrations of the worm's adventure. [more inside]
posted on Nov 28, 2006 - 2 answers

Concerning the first appearance of words: Is there an authoritative source or repository of "new" words? I ask because I want to introduce what I believe is a "new" word but want to be certain it hasn't appeared anywhere else. I did the obvious Googasearch and found nothing.
posted on Nov 22, 2006 - 13 answers

Off to a Decemberists show tonight, and thereby wondering: What are some musical acts, especially predating 1980, with a simliar proclivity toward verbosity and the historical or arcane? [more inside]
posted on Oct 19, 2006 - 37 answers

What word am I thinking of? There's a word that means something like, "an object that compels you to want to eat or lick it, even though the object is in fact not edible or meant to be licked". If it helps at all, I believe I've seen this word used to describe the new Macbook and its resemblance to an oversized piece of Chiclet gum. And btw, "pica" is not the word.
posted on Jul 25, 2006 - 38 answers

Know any rare English prepositions? [more inside]
posted on Jun 17, 2006 - 11 answers

What word for "use" would you use for "use" in the term use case in German, and why? [more inside]
posted on May 1, 2006 - 6 answers

Where can I get hold of German vocabulary lessons/lists on cd or mp3? [more inside]
posted on Mar 23, 2006 - 5 answers

I'm at a stage where I need to memorize vocabulary in a foreign language, and I am looking for advice, tips & useful software. [more inside]
posted on Feb 24, 2006 - 19 answers

Is there a specific word for the varied detritus people leave between the pages of a book? [more inside]
posted on Jan 20, 2006 - 26 answers

I'm embarking on an intense italian vocabulary learning routine, and I need some advice on how to maximize my effort using lexicons and flashcard software. [più dentro] [more inside]
posted on Dec 29, 2005 - 2 answers

Anyone work in the wild and wooly world of Public Relations? I'm curious about industry-specific lingo and utterances. What do people in the public relations industry call it when a Press Release/Video News Release, etc. gets picked up in the media just as they'd hoped? Is it a success? A hit? A what? What are the commonly used terms of success or failure? Are there differences between terms used in public and the ones used near the water cooler? Are there any specific pieces of vocabulary, and what do they mean? Any PR lingo is much appreciated....
posted on Oct 7, 2005 - 6 answers

What is the word for the criminal act of throwing crap out of a window? [more inside]
posted on Oct 3, 2005 - 22 answers

What's the difference between efficiency and effectiveness ?
posted on Sep 6, 2005 - 17 answers

French speakers: how would you translate "pre-testing" (trying out potential exam questions on students before using them in an exam) and "standards-fixing" (ensuring the exam is of a suitable level of difficulty)?
posted on Aug 10, 2005 - 10 answers

I am looking for a word i once knew that describe a political regime in place which delude peoples mostly from their money... ex: Marcos and the Philippines. If I remember correctly it was ending with "*craty" but I can't be sure. It was on dictionary.com word of the day a long while ago but I can't find it thru their archives. maybe someone here can enlighten my vocabulary ?
posted on Aug 2, 2005 - 5 answers

Languages: I would like to teach myself a foreign language with the primary motivation of reading literature written originally in that language. (Italian, in this case.) For now, speaking and pronunciation are not as important as learning grammatical rules, sentence construction, and growing my vocabulary. Ideally, I would like to learn at my own pace, without having to hire a tutor or enrol in language classes, and I would prefer to skip general phrasebook greetings. Apart from a dictionary, what should I arm myself with? Are there any good resources on the web for this? How should one go about teaching oneself to read a foreign language? Thanks!
posted on Jul 6, 2005 - 18 answers

The web or the Web; internet or Internet? Do you capitalize them? I'm trying to get a sense of common usage on the net (or Net). Do you, or don't you? And why? As a data point, we don't write the Ocean and the Sky, but some people do write the Moon, and some the moon. I don't care what the experts say; what's the emergent convention? What do YOU do?
posted on Jun 8, 2005 - 31 answers

I'm paring down categories on a website and I'm looking for a single phrase that can be used to replace "Contact Us" and "Locations." The info on each page is too similar, so I'd like to create a single page with contact info and location maps. It's for a medical practice with two offices. Limitation: around 12-15 letters maximum, to match the other categories and stay within the limitations of the menu. Thanks!
posted on May 26, 2005 - 19 answers

I'm pretty verbose, but I don't think my vocabulary has grown much in years. And I'd like to build it up. [more inside]
posted on May 18, 2005 - 23 answers

What are some good strategies for studying language with notecards or flash cards? Anyone have experience with the so-called Leitner system? Are software/online notecard systems any better than the real thing? Vocabulary-building tips are appreciated, as well.
posted on Feb 10, 2005 - 3 answers

My friend from school claims that the average American only has about 10,000 words in his/her everyday vocabulary. As an example, he cites USAToday, saying if we were to count the number of distinct words used in that paper, there would only be a few thousand. I would like to check this out. Does anyone know of any software that will do a distinct word count?
posted on Nov 17, 2004 - 10 answers

Would it be inescapably magniloquent to use the word 'magniloquent?'
posted on Jul 26, 2004 - 12 answers

Academical? While listening to NPR this afternoon, a UVa student giving a tour used the word "academical" in describing a portion of UVa's campus . The use of "academical" struck me as sounding very odd although it is arguably correct. Is it all academic?
posted on Jul 3, 2004 - 10 answers