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November 20, 2009

Gloaming and the animal identity crisis

The word of the day is gloaming, which means “twilight” or “dusk.”

Today’s list of the day is Animal Identity Crisis, which includes animals who have the name of another type of animal in their common names, such as the elephant bird and the sea cow.

gloaming
Photo by Eric Wüstenhagen and used here under a Creative Commons license.

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November 19, 2009

Adorkable and capitonyms

Today’s word of the day is adorkable. It means adorably dorky. Like, a Hello Kitty-branded phone.

Today’s list of the day features capitonyms, words which differ in meaning depending upon whether the first letter is capitalized or not, like Turkey and turkey and Apple and apple.

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November 18, 2009

Belvedere; words that roll or stumble off the tongue

Today’s word of the day is belvedere, a roofed structure, especially a small pavilion or tower on top of a building, situated so as to command a wide view.

We have a pair of “lists of the day” today: words that roll of the tongue and words that stumble off the tongue.

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November 17, 2009

Mancession

Today’s word of the day is mancession, an economic recession that affects men more than women.

Today’s list of the day is of panvocalics, words that contain the vowels a, e, i, o, and u.

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November 16, 2009

Belter

Today’s word of the day is belter, a person who sings a song very loudly, or a song so sung.

Today’s list of the day features containers. Thinking inside the box!

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November 13, 2009

Dight and a laundry list

Today’s word of the day is dight, which in its simplest uses means “to dress or adorn.” However, there are more complex definitions, too.

Today’s list of the day is user lampbane’s laundry list: words pertaining to doing the wash.

3950171218_b97e4577f0
Picture by midorisyu, used here under a Creative Commons license.

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November 12, 2009

Alizarin

Today’s word of the day is alizarin, an orange-red crystalline compound, C14H6O2(OH)2, used in making dyes. It’s also a part of our very first list of the day, Reds, which features, ta-da, lots of words for red colors.

Bonuses: A list of red/pink colors and things tagged “red.”

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Photo by Karin Dalziel, used here under a Creative Commons license.

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