Some of the brightest young minds just finished showcasing their knowledge of the English language. The 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee wrapped up this week with participants navigating words the ...

One of the best things going on around 200 B.C.E. (from this linguist’s point of view, at least) was that a librarian in Alexandria, Aristophanes of Byzantium, invented the first punctuation system ...

Most of us wouldn’t even know how to pronounce those words, let alone spell them. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a week away and it is sure to be filled with a plethora of problematic words. An ...

Misty Adoniou is a Senior Lecturer in Language, Literacy and Teaching English as a Second Language at the University of Canberra. She occasionally presents workshops in schools on the teaching of ...

University of Canberra provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. We all have words that trip us up and it is tempting to blame the apparent randomness of English spelling for our errors, ...

Are you smarter than a spelling bee contestant? If you can spell these words, you might be. Merriam-Webster has announced the hardest words to spell in the English language ahead of the 92nd annual ...