Word
noun
A set of letters or symbols written or spoken, which expresses a meaning.
The word 'cat' means a small domestic animal.
Often appears as...
- objectionable word
- spelling a word
noun
A short discussion or conversation.
Can I have a word with you in private?
Often appears as...
- word of advice
- word of caution
noun
A promise or assurance.
I give you my word that I will not tell anyone.
Often appears as...
- word of honor
- breaking one’s word
noun
Information or news.
Have you heard any word about the job?
Often appears as...
- word has it
- word spreads
noun
A command or order.
At the word, they started running.
Often appears as...
- at one’s word
- final word
verb
To choose and use particular words in order to say or write something.
He worded the letter very carefully.
Often appears as...
- word a letter
- word a question
noun
A set of letters or symbols written or spoken, which expresses a meaning.
The word 'cat' means a small domestic animal.
Often appears as...
- objectionable word
- spelling a word
noun
A short discussion or conversation.
Can I have a word with you in private?
Often appears as...
- word of advice
- word of caution
noun
A promise or assurance.
I give you my word that I will not tell anyone.
Often appears as...
- word of honor
- breaking one’s word
noun
Information or news.
Have you heard any word about the job?
Often appears as...
- word has it
- word spreads
noun
A command or order.
At the word, they started running.
Often appears as...
- at one’s word
- final word
verb
To choose and use particular words in order to say or write something.
He worded the letter very carefully.
Often appears as...
- word a letter
- word a question
Definition 1 of 6
Pro Tip 1/3Vocabulary Building
Learning individual words helps you communicate clearly and understand others.
Knowing the word 'ubiquitous' can describe something found everywhere.
Pro Tip 2/3Cultural Sensitivity
Some words can have different meanings or be offensive in various cultures.
The word 'mate' is friendly in Australia, but could be misunderstood elsewhere.
Pro Tip 3/3Contextual Awareness
Words can change meaning depending on the context they are used in.
'Bark' can mean the sound a dog makes or the outer layer of a tree.
Pro Tip 1/3Vocabulary Building
Learning individual words helps you communicate clearly and understand others.
Knowing the word 'ubiquitous' can describe something found everywhere.
Pro Tip 2/3Cultural Sensitivity
Some words can have different meanings or be offensive in various cultures.
The word 'mate' is friendly in Australia, but could be misunderstood elsewhere.
Pro Tip 3/3Contextual Awareness
Words can change meaning depending on the context they are used in.
'Bark' can mean the sound a dog makes or the outer layer of a tree.
Pro Tip 1/3Vocabulary Building
Learning individual words helps you communicate clearly and understand others.
Knowing the word 'ubiquitous' can describe something found everywhere.
Pro Tip 2/3Cultural Sensitivity
Some words can have different meanings or be offensive in various cultures.
The word 'mate' is friendly in Australia, but could be misunderstood elsewhere.
Pro Tip 3/3Contextual Awareness
Words can change meaning depending on the context they are used in.
'Bark' can mean the sound a dog makes or the outer layer of a tree.
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Video examples
How sugar affects the...
Drugs like alcohol, nicotine, or heroin send dopamine into overdrive, leading some people to constantly seek that high, in other words, to be addicted. Sugar also causes dopamine to be released, though not as violently as drugs. And sugar is rare among dopamine-inducing foods. Broccoli, for example, has no effect, which probably explains
Video examples
Buffalo buffalo buffalo:...
These different interpretations create a sequence of words that is grammatically correct as it stands, though it helps to add in a few implied phrases and punctuation marks to reveal what's really going on. Buffalo buffalo are bison from the city of Buffalo, and this sentence has three groups of them.
Video examples
Wild Beavers Return...
have a burrow that goes in underwater and then up into uh clear air within the bank still and that's where they'd have their young and that would be their safety and their refuge because the water wasn't deep enough here they then made it deep enough in other words they come to an environment which
Video examples
The art of the metaphor...
Metaphors give words a way to go beyond their own meaning. They're handles on the door of what we can know, and of what we can imagine. Each door leads to some new house, and some new world that only that one handle can open. What's amazing is
Video examples
Where do new words come...
these can often be understood the first time you hear them. And sometimes a new word isn't new at all. Obsolete words gain new life by adopting new meanings. Villain originally meant a peasant farmer, but in a twist of aristocratic snobbery
Video examples
Words worth knowing from...
that the word is used in a band name magnet ours are so powerful that if you put one between the Earth and the moon just ask any friendly TED astrophysicist how to do that they'll be happy to help if if you did that it would destroy
Video examples
How misused modifiers...
And lest you think this is a bit far-fetched, confusing headlines like this appear all the time. Modifiers are words, phrases, and clauses that add information about other parts of a sentence, which is usually helpful.
Video examples
Rethinking infidelity...
And it isn't so much that we're looking for another person, as much as we are looking for another self. Now, all over the world, there is one word that people who have affairs always tell me. They feel alive.
Video examples
NASA Trailblazer:...
computer courage is just one of many words that describe this woman being the first woman in the room of all white men in a time when that was not popular
Video examples
What is bipolar...
What is bipolar disorder? The word bipolar means two extremes. For the many millions experiencing bipolar disorder around the world,
Video examples
How sugar affects the...
Drugs like alcohol, nicotine, or heroin send dopamine into overdrive, leading some people to constantly seek that high, in other words, to be addicted. Sugar also causes dopamine to be released, though not as violently as drugs. And sugar is rare among dopamine-inducing foods. Broccoli, for example, has no effect, which probably explains
Video examples
Buffalo buffalo buffalo:...
These different interpretations create a sequence of words that is grammatically correct as it stands, though it helps to add in a few implied phrases and punctuation marks to reveal what's really going on. Buffalo buffalo are bison from the city of Buffalo, and this sentence has three groups of them.
Video examples
Wild Beavers Return...
have a burrow that goes in underwater and then up into uh clear air within the bank still and that's where they'd have their young and that would be their safety and their refuge because the water wasn't deep enough here they then made it deep enough in other words they come to an environment which
Video examples
The art of the metaphor...
Metaphors give words a way to go beyond their own meaning. They're handles on the door of what we can know, and of what we can imagine. Each door leads to some new house, and some new world that only that one handle can open. What's amazing is
Video examples
Where do new words come...
these can often be understood the first time you hear them. And sometimes a new word isn't new at all. Obsolete words gain new life by adopting new meanings. Villain originally meant a peasant farmer, but in a twist of aristocratic snobbery
Video examples
Words worth knowing from...
that the word is used in a band name magnet ours are so powerful that if you put one between the Earth and the moon just ask any friendly TED astrophysicist how to do that they'll be happy to help if if you did that it would destroy
Video examples
How misused modifiers...
And lest you think this is a bit far-fetched, confusing headlines like this appear all the time. Modifiers are words, phrases, and clauses that add information about other parts of a sentence, which is usually helpful.
Video examples
Rethinking infidelity...
And it isn't so much that we're looking for another person, as much as we are looking for another self. Now, all over the world, there is one word that people who have affairs always tell me. They feel alive.
Video examples
NASA Trailblazer:...
computer courage is just one of many words that describe this woman being the first woman in the room of all white men in a time when that was not popular
Video examples
What is bipolar...
What is bipolar disorder? The word bipolar means two extremes. For the many millions experiencing bipolar disorder around the world,
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Martin Scorsese
American Director
Very often I've known people who wouldn't say a word to each other, but they'd go to see movies together and experience life that way.
Quote examples
Steve Jobs
American Businessman
Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.
Quote examples
Joel Osteen
American Clergyman
You can change your world by changing your words... Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Quote examples
Ernest Hemingway
American Novelist
All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.
Quote examples
Emily Dickinson
American Poet
A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.
Quote examples
Sophocles
Greek Poet
One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.
Quote examples
Joyce Meyer
American Author
Words are powerful; if you change your words, you can change your life.
Quote examples
Robin Williams
American Comedian
No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.
Quote examples
Henry David Thoreau
American Author
The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
Quote examples
Aeschylus
Greek Poet
The words of truth are simple.
Quote examples
Martin Scorsese
American Director
Very often I've known people who wouldn't say a word to each other, but they'd go to see movies together and experience life that way.
Quote examples
Steve Jobs
American Businessman
Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.
Quote examples
Joel Osteen
American Clergyman
You can change your world by changing your words... Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Quote examples
Ernest Hemingway
American Novelist
All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.
Quote examples
Emily Dickinson
American Poet
A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.
Quote examples
Sophocles
Greek Poet
One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.
Quote examples
Joyce Meyer
American Author
Words are powerful; if you change your words, you can change your life.
Quote examples
Robin Williams
American Comedian
No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.
Quote examples
Henry David Thoreau
American Author
The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
Quote examples
Aeschylus
Greek Poet
The words of truth are simple.
Example 1 of 10
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