25 Years of "A Word A Day"

David Randall

At NAS, we’re long-time fans of Anu Garg, the creator of Wordsmith.org. Wordsmith.org publishes A.Word.A.Day, the Pangram Finder, the Internet Anagram Server, and more. Garg shares his delight with the English language to anyone with a web-browser. We’ve enjoyed Garg’s website enormously over the years, and we recommend it enthusiastically.

We published an interview with Garg in 2009, and we’re delighted to learn that Wordsmith.org is now celebrating its 25th birthday—they’ve been going strong since 14 March 1994, when Garg posted zephyr, his first A.Word.A.Day. The website is organizing celebratory contests—send in a limerick, an anagram, or a pangram, and you might win—well, go and look on the Wordsmith.org website. It doesn’t matter what you might win; the fun is playing with words yourself.

Here in the NAS office, we got tempted by their limerick contest—“Write an original limerick to describe an event that happened during the last 25 years.” Someone in the office submitted this, about the college bribery scandal which has just hit the news:

Admissions said drop us a line
Admittance costs only a dime;
But then students failed
And the insiders bailed
And now quite a few may do time.

Send in a limerick of your own! Or an anagram or a pangram or coin a word. It’s the best fun this side of the Coney Island Cyclone.

  • Share

Most Commented

February 13, 2024

1.

The Great Academic Divorce with China

All signs show that American education is beginning a long and painful divorce with the People’s Republic of China. But will academia go through with it?...

January 24, 2024

2.

After Claudine

The idea has caught on that the radical left overplayed its hand in DEI and is now vulnerable to those of us who seek major reforms. This is not, however, the first time that the a......

February 2, 2024

3.

Tribalism or Individualism?

The most immediate work of conservatives must be the rejection of tribalism and a refocus on the individual—individual character, industry, and aptitude....

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

September 21, 2010

3.

Ask a Scholar: What Does YHWH Elohim Mean?

A reader asks, "If Elohim refers to multiple 'gods,' then Yhwh Elohim really means Lord of Gods...the one of many, right?" A Hebrew expert answers....