‘The ick’, ‘boop’ and ‘chef’s kiss’ added to Cambridge Dictionary
Other lives
Maggie Ross obituary
June 2024
Brief letters
Ein Wort für a fear of mentioning the war
Letters: Kriegserwähnungsangst | When nuclear Israel was invaded | Temperature drop | Gwyneth Hughes | George Carnarvon
May 2024
The big idea
The big idea: the simple trick that can sabotage your critical thinking
Influencers and politicians use snappy cliches to get you on side – but you can fight fire with fire
Notes and queries
Readers reply: what was humanity’s first word?
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
Notes and queries
What was humanity’s first word?
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
April 2024
Cotton Capital: ongoing series
‘I Gullah Geechee, too’: the educators keeping a language of enslaved Africans alive
Sunn m’Cheaux and Akua Page teach Gullah language and culture from juvenile incarceration facilities to Harvard
March 2024
The Oxford English Dictionary’s latest update adds 23 Japanese words
The inspiration behind ‘bread and roses’
January 2024
Of course we should let the children play, but should we let them swear as well?
Emma Brockes
Brief letters
Why your crossword clue was truly oeuful
Brief letters
The Centrica boss’s bonus of contention
Swearing is becoming more widely acceptable, linguistics experts claim
December 2023
Hallucinate, AI, authenticity: dictionaries’ words of the year make our biggest fears clear
In a world of chatbots and influencers, Merriam-Webster, Cambridge and Collins are in rare agreement
November 2023
Brief letters
Shameful reality of Britain’s slum housing
Brief letters
The show goes on for a Shakespeare film set
Making small talk was a struggle at first, but now try shutting me up
Michael Hogan
Gaelic Scrabble launched to help keep declining language alive in Scotland
‘Hallucinate’ chosen as Cambridge dictionary’s word of the year
‘AI’ named most notable word of 2023 by Collins dictionary
