Keeping Our Word in the Face of Meta’s Changes
When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he reinstated accounts of people who frequently had plied misinformation on the site, and he seemed unconcerned about the platform’s takeover by people with…
The Death of Truth
The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.” — George Orwell Starting on May 30, Planet Word is launching the first…
Choosing the 2023 Word of the Year: Q&A with Ben Zimmer and Kelly Wright
Since 1990, the American Dialect Society has annually unveiled a Word of the Year — a newly prominent word that reflects significant events, societal shifts, and prevailing themes over the…
A Manifesto for Planet Word 2.0
Back in 2013 when we started planning a museum of words and language, it was mainly intended to be a new way to bring disaffected readers back into the fold…
A Couple of Neologisms for Today
On November 29, 2022, Planet Word interviewed Dr. Hany Farid from Berkeley about his work to identify deepfake online videos and photography. This is especially important as we enter the…
Message from the Founder: Or Is It?
I’m barely competent with technology and frequently beseeching my daughters or tech-savvy young people for assistance with what I think are my computer’s “bugs.” It’s demeaning to feel so powerless…