Instead, what you usually get is words that will never be used in conversation, held up as curios. Some examples from Dictionary.com’s daily email: thewless, balladmonger, vagility, contextomy. These words are... not useful.
I’ve always thought I could do better. My friend Ben recently created a daily puzzle game, called Bracket City, launched here on HN [1], which I like because it takes about the same amount of time as Wordle but has some of the variety and artistry of a good crossword.
Ben agreed to let me write a word of the day for the game’s audience. We’ve collected them all here: https://bracket.city/words. It’s such a joy to write -- every day, I pay homage to a word I love or use or have newly discovered. I find myself paying more attention to words I encounter, thinking if they deserve a place.
It’s also fun for another reason. Many years ago I wrote a blog post, "You’re probably using the wrong dictionary" [2], that made the rounds and actually still finds new readers today. It was about how the modern-day dictionaries we find by default on our iPhones and web browsers are actually kind of bureaucratic and lifeless. Through a writer I love, John McPhee, I rediscovered Webster’s 1913 dictionary, which feels like it was written by a thinking person who loved words. I still consult it all the time. Writing a word of the day has reminded me just how delightful and useful Webster’s old dictionary is -- and reacquainted me with the OED, which I now look to every day, and which I discovered you can access with your library card.
Some of my favorite entries so far: sophisticated, twee, gravitas, blockbuster, meteorologist, send, bid. There are more than 175 now -- and more coming once a day, every day, for as long as Bracket City stands.
To sign up to see each word of the day as it’s published, go to https://bracket.city/words.
[1] https://www.etymonline.com/
[2] https://www.websters1913.com/
[3] https://jsomers.net/blog/dictionary
I wonder how much of this is down to the corporatisation of dictionaries. I did a quick search and it turns out that Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com are owned by Rock Holdings, a multinational conglomerate registered in the Isle of Man and controlled by Aaron Banks (one of the shadowy powers responsible for Brexit). Obviously that would have happened well after the dumbing-down process began, but it illuminates the trend.
Thanks for sharing this great piece of prose (as noted by siblings, penned by OP)
It motivated me to read a bit about Noah Webster. While this is far afield from the topic at hand now, I did find his view on abolitionism interesting, as it parallels a common modern attitude of supporting liberationist movements in principle, but resisting them insofar as they disrupt the status quo or meddle in the affairs of another country / another state:
> Initially supportive of the abolitionist movement, Webster helped found the Connecticut Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1791. However, by the 1830's he began to disagree with the movement's arguments that Americans who did not actively oppose the institution of slavery were complicit in the system. In 1832, Webster wrote and published a history textbook titled History of the United States, which omitted any reference to the role of slavery in American history and included racist characterizations of African Americans. The textbook also "spoke of whiteness as the supreme race and declared Anglo Saxons as the only true Americans." In 1837, Webster criticized his daughter Eliza for her support for the abolitionist movement, writing that "slavery is a great sin and a general calamity—but it is not our sin, though it may prove to be a terrible calamity to us in the north. But we cannot legally interfere with the South on this subject. To come north to preach and thus disturb our peace, when we can legally do nothing to effect this object, is, in my view, highly criminal and the preachers of abolitionism deserve the penitentiary."
I'd love to read more about his daughter Eliza, but unfortunately googling permutations of her presumed name ("Elizabeth Steele Webster"? "Elizabeth Steele Greenleaf Webster"? "Elizabeth Steele Jones"?) unfortunately didn't surface a meaningful biography.
The app appears to be open source (https://github.com/ponychicken/DictUnifier) so I'll see if I can manage a patch.
Thank you for this and your wonderful article!
You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35635876 - April 2023 (1 comment)
Using the wrong dictionary (2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29734242 - Dec 2021 (170 comments)
You’re probably using the wrong dictionary (2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19763435 - April 2019 (87 comments)
You're probably using the wrong dictionary - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9294518 - March 2015 (2 comments)
Using the wrong dictionary - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7772557 - May 2014 (138 comments)
Thank HN: The puzzle game I posted here 6 weeks ago got licensed by The Atlantic - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43622719 - April 2025 (169 comments)
Show HN: Bracket City – A daily, exploded (?) crossword puzzle - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43160542 - Feb 2025 (53 comments)
a way to increase the discovery of relevance could be looking up the etymologies of words that pop up, I'm always fascinated by how complex and interesting etymologies are
If you want feedback, I think you should take the bit you said about "you're probably using the wrong dictionary" and put that right at the top as a sort of summary of the intent of your word of the day. It really helps contextualize what you're doing. For context, I have a strong prior (hey, that could be a wotd) that word of the day is some random garbage, and I spent a long time reading your site before I understood what your intent was, and why it is so much better than all existing wotds.
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/calendar
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quoting_out_of_context
Those who live in glass houses should not attempt to hang paintings, methinks.
You must think other people are deeply, abysmally, troglodytically stupid if you thought one could make that comment without self-awareness.
> You must think other people are deeply, abysmally, troglodytically stupid if you thought one could make that comment without self-awareness.
I suspect you inhabit a different part of the Internet than me. I envy you.