To a lover of words and language, it is a prized possession. The Internet has made the collection, in its massive printed form, obsolete. OED has an app, an easy-to-use search function, and even a ...

Linguist Gareth Roberts joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about the etymologies of English words. How did the first languages first form? Was there once a single common language ...

For more than 150 years ago, the assumption that language is a singular event has hampered progress in explaining its evolution. Another obstacle was the failure to recognize that certain social ...

In 1871, Darwin hypothesized that “the difference in mind between man and the higher animals…is one of degree and not of kind.” In the case of language, attempts to define that degree have been an ...

OXON HILL, Md. — As the final pre-competition meeting of the Scripps National Spelling Bee's word selection panel stretches into its seventh hour, the pronouncers no longer seem to care. Before ...