The New York Times Learning Network invited students to make up a word needed for today’s society. Based on their answers, none of the winners seemed at all lavid.

The English language is full of colorful animal expressions. Enough to keep you busy until the cows come home.

He cheekily warned his readers that ‘It behooves us to avoid archaisms. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.’

Criticism of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary often boiled down to it boldly being a recorder of the English language instead of a bastion of proper English.

Word games are hot, and plentiful. Just ask the New York Times. And Taylor Swift.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said, ‘Reformed spelling might become universal, but it would cease to be the English language.’

When Kingston, Jamaica’s Jody-Anne Maxwell spelled ‘chiaroscurist’ correctly in 1998, she became the event’s first black winner and also the first winner from outside the United States.

Amazon started out as Cadabra. But not everyone got the reference, and it didn’t help that people calling the retailer often heard ‘cadaver’ instead.

‘Pete’s Submarines’ sounded too much like “pizza submarines,” so owners Fred DeLuca and Doctor Peter Buck first changed the name to ‘Doctor’s Associates’ before deciding on a more familiar one.

Take the word ‘gif,” which is an acronym for ‘graphics interchange format.’ People seem to pronounce it one of two ways, but its inventor has no doubt about how it’s pronounced.