The hottest Words Substack posts right now

Many words in English have one side that is commonly used, while their pairs are often ignored. For example, you might be 'disgruntled' but have never been 'gruntled.'
Language evolves and new words are created when two concepts come together. Words like 'email' started as 'electronic mail' and have changed over time.
As words change, their pronunciation also shifts. For instance, 'bookshop' is pronounced differently than 'book shop,' showing how language and speech develop over time.

Struggles with spelling: even if knowledgeable, spelling can still be challenging.
Complex philosophical terms: pronunciation can be difficult for common words like Quine and Kant.
Academic humor: light-hearted approach to the challenges of academia.

Monthly recommendations and exploring rabbit holes can lead to discovering new ideas and perspectives.
End-of-life dreams can hold deep meaning and offer insight into the transition between life and death.
Boring drafts in writing can paradoxically lead to more engaging storytelling by focusing on minute details and avoiding being overly self-conscious.

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Words like 'soligenous' and 'thymogenic' describe creation by the sun and emotions respectively.
The concept of creation extends to words like 'oneirogenous' from dreams and 'nubigenous' that are cloud-born.
Language offers depth with words like 'relinquerous' related to relics and 'oblivegenous' tied to forgetting.

The post discusses unique, old English words and their origins, shedding light on their fascinating meanings.
Many of the words presented originate from the sixteenth century, showcasing the richness of the English language during that period.
The examples given range from terms relating to emotions and actions, to ones describing physical elements like frost or speech patterns.

Given a matrix of letters and a dictionary of words, find the maximum number of words that can be constructed from the matrix based on specific rules.
To pack a word on the board, it must be in the dictionary, created from available letters, and have adjacent letters (vertically and horizontally).
In the example, the function should return 3 for the words 'eat, 'in', and 'rat' as valid words that can be formed without touching each other.

Cutting out extraneous words is important for clarity and impact in writing.
Viewing words as employees that need to 'earn their keep' can help in identifying superfluous words.
Removing adjectives and adverbs, except for certain cases, can often improve writing.