Today’s Fun Features

Word of the Day

charlatan

Definition: A person who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge; a quack or fraud.
Synonyms: mountebank

Article of the Day

Daily Grammar Lesson

Idiom of the Day

a modest proposal

An extreme, unorthodox, and often provocative or distasteful remedy to a complex problem, generally suggested humorously or satirically. (An allusion to Jonathan Swift’s 1729 essay A Modest Proposal, in which he suggests that the poor of Ireland could alleviate their woes by selling their children as food.)

This Day in History

Today’s Birthday

Today’s Holiday

Bill of Rights Day

The first 10 amendments to the US Constitution of 1787—referred to collectively as the Bill of Rights—were ratified on December 15, 1791. This landmark document protected American citizens from specific abuses by their government and guaranteed such basic rights as the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated December 15 as Bill of Rights Day and called upon Americans to observe it with appropriate patriotic ceremonies. More…

Quote of the Day
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.
Herman Melville
(1819-1891)

Word Trivia

Today’s topic: nourish

alimony – From Latin alimonia, "nourishment" or "eating money," from alere, "to nourish," and mony, "result, resulting condition," it first meant "nourishment, support." More…

alumnus, alumna, alumni – Alumnus and alumna stem from Latin alere, "to nourish or be nourished," now by a university; originally alumnus was a pupil and now it is a male graduate. Alumni refers to either sex. More…

coalesce – Meaning "cause to grow together," it is from Latin co- and alere, "nourish." More…

nurture – The verb was formed after the noun, which first referred (c. 1330) to a person's training or breeding. The word can be traced back to Latin nutritus, meaning "to nourish." More…


Grammar Quiz

Spelling Bee
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Hangman

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