Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, December 18, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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free-spoken
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining AdjectivesAdjectives are used almost exclusively to modify nouns, as well as any phrase or part of speech functioning as a noun. For example, what is the adjective in the sentence, "A loud group of students passed by"? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 MasersA maser is a device that produces an intense and highly focused beam of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range of the spectrum. Its name is an acronym for "microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." A wavelength produced by a maser is so constant and reproducible that it can be used to control a clock that remains accurate to one second over hundreds of years. Masers also make it possible to measure faint radio waves emitted by Venus. How do they differ from lasers? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Saturn's Moon Epimetheus Is Discovered (1966)Epimetheus, a nonspherical body measuring about 89 mi (144 km) by 67 mi (108 km) by 61 mi (98 km), is one of Saturn's 48 confirmed natural satellites. It was discovered in 1966 and photographed in 1980 by the Voyager 1 probe. Epimetheus and another moon, Janus, are co-orbital, meaning that they share nearly the same orbit. About every fourth year, the lower, faster satellite overtakes the other and is boosted into the higher orbit. After what mythological figure is Epimetheus named? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb (1886)Cobb was one of the greatest offensive players and perhaps the fiercest competitor in baseball history. During his 24-year career as an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics, he set records that would stand for decades, including 892 stolen bases—a feat partly attributed to the brutality with which he used his cleats. Cobb provoked controversy on and off the field but was the first player elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1936. Which of his records remain unbroken? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The properties of ink are peculiar and contradictory: it may be used to make reputations and unmake them; to blacken them and to make them white; but it is most generally and acceptably employed as a mortar to bind together the stones of an edifice of fame, and as a whitewash to conceal afterward the rascal quality of the material.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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locker-room humor— Especially crude, vulgar, or bawdy humor. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Modesto's Day (2024)St. Modesto is the patron saint of farmers in Greece. His feast day is celebrated with various rituals in honor of farm animals. In Lemnos, kollyva (cooked wheat berries) and holy water are mixed with their fodder, while in Lesbos, the holy water is sprinkled on the fields to ward off locusts and disease. For horses and oxen, December 18 is a day of rest. The Eastern Orthodox Church reserves this day to commemorate St. Modestus, who was patriarch of Jerusalem from 631 to 634. He is known for a sermon he preached on the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: pursuitdachshund - German for "badger hound," from its original breeding purpose to pursue a badger (etc.) that has taken refuge in a burrow. More... invite - Comes from Latin invitare, from an Indo-European root meaning "to go after something, pursue with vigor, desire." More... logology - The pursuit of word puzzles; also the science of words. More... sue - From Latin sequi, "follow," it first meant "follow, go in pursuit of." More... | |