DEAR RICHARD LEDERER: I was gobsmacked (a fun word too) to hear for the first time the word bafflegab, which means exactly what it sounds like. Unfortunately, there’s so much of it these days. –Cindy ...

Linguists have noticed that many swear words share the same sharp, punchy sounds—hard consonants like “k,” “t,” and “g” that burst out of the mouth rather than flow. When a study examined those sound ...

Leslie Katz led a team that explored the intersection of tech and culture, plus all manner of awe-inspiring science, from space to AI and archaeology. When she's not smithing words, she's probably ...

Q: My granddaughter is repeating first grade because she has problems with reading, especially nonsense words. What are nonsense words? I would love to be able to help her. — Grammie A: Nonsense words ...

What shape do you see when you hear “bouba”? What about “kiki”? It turns out that nonsense words that evoke certain shapes have something to say about the origins of language. If you're enjoying this ...

Across dozens of languages, people associate the same sounds with the same shapes, according to new research. What can this tell us about how language first developed in humans? A new study found that ...