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 ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...