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The AllusionistEpisodes

  1. Yes, As In

    "As in the animal?" "Is that a stripper name?" "What were your parents thinking?"

  2. Word Sport

    At the Scripps National Spelling Bee it's a lot of work to make words into this word sport

  3. Word Play 2

    Makers of word games explain how they turn language into creative play

  4. Verisimilitude

    A lot - a LOT! - of work goes into inventing languages for fictional worlds.

  5. Two or More

    In its fairly short existence, the word 'bisexual' has had a pretty bumpy ride.

  6. Tranquillusionist: Person In Scene

    Soothe your brain with a meaningless list of characters without names in movie credits

  7. Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations

    Constellations that got demoted into ex-constellations

  8. Timucua

    Decoding and translating 400-year-old texts to understand the lost Timucua language

  9. The Eggs Warning

    "Warning: read and keep," says the piece of paper inside Kinder Eggs, in 34 languages

  10. The Box

    How and why do you rename a building or equation or theory that is named after someone?

  11. Swear Pill

    Swearing is good for you! Be sure you swear properly to optimise the positive effects.

  12. Sorry

    Apologies are such important verbal transactions. So why are so many of them so bad?

  13. Singlish

    About Singlish, and the complicated language situation in Singapore

  14. Siblings of Chaos

    Dictionary Corner resident Susie Dent has been studying words to make us feel happy.

  15. Ravels

    Why your cardigan is called 'cardigan'

  16. Queer Arab Glossary

    Designer and artist Marwan Kababour collects Arabic-language queer slang

  17. Project ENABLE

    Sterling Martin was studying worms, when suddenly he found himself making a dictionary.

  18. Polari

    When there are no safe spaces, language is a refuge, a lifeline, a keeper of secrets.

  19. Parents

    In English law, the word 'mother' becomes semantically very complicated.

  20. No Title

    A seemingly trivial incident at the bank propelled me down a linguistic road of no return

  21. Mouthful of Fortune

    At Lunar New Year, certain foods are particularly lucky to eat. Why? Because puns.

  22. Misophonia

    Misophonia is a condition that 20% of you have: an extreme reaction to certain sounds.

  23. Lipread

    How lipreading works, and why lipreading gossip stories are so successful and worthless

  24. Lemon Demon

    AJ Jacobs makes word puzzles, and sometimes turns his whole life into a puzzle.

  25. In Character

    Chinese is one of the oldest still-spoken languages in the world.

  26. Hypochondria

    Hypochondria's meaning went from physical ailments to ones that are only in your mind

  27. How the Dickens Stole Christmas

    How come Charles Dickens's name is synonymous with Christmas?

  28. Good Grids

    Exciting things have been happening with crossword puzzles in the US

  29. Gems and Patties

    Two food-related renamings: one that mostly happened, another that mostly did not

  30. Fiona part 2

    "Fiona might not have quite the history that you imagined, but it's a beautiful history."

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