Daily Content Archive

(as of Tuesday, May 5, 2020)
Word of the Day

absolutism

Definition:(noun) A form of government in which all power is vested in a single ruler or other authority.
Synonyms:dictatorship, monocracy, one-man rule, totalitarianism, tyranny, authoritarianism, despotism
Usage: Sir Robert Walpole, ruling the country with unscrupulous absolutism, had now put an end to the employment of literary men in public life.
Daily Grammar Lesson

Defining Grammatical Tense

Grammatical tense refers to the conjugation of a verb to reflect its place in time—that is, when the action occurred. Verbs in their basic form inherently describe the present time, and they can be conjugated into a unique form that describes the past. What can we then use to create different aspects of the past and present tenses? More...
Article of the Day

Dou Shou Qi

Popular with children, Dou Shou Qi, also known as Jungle Chess, is a traditional Chinese board game similar to chess and Stratego. Each player has eight pieces representing animals, including an elephant, lion, tiger, leopard, dog, wolf, cat, and rat. More powerful animals, such as the lion, can capture and eat weaker animals, such as the rat. The board itself is marked with traps, dens, and water areas, and some animals move across the board differently than others. How is the game won? More...
This Day in History

First American in Space (1961)

In 1961, 23 days after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to be launched into space. Shepard's suborbital flight—part of the US space program Project Mercury—reached a height of 115 miles (185 km). He performed several maneuvers of his capsule, Freedom 7, but returned after only a 15-minute flight. Although Gagarin was the first human in space, Shepard was the first to return in what way? More...
Today's Birthday

Karl Marx (1818)

Though largely ignored during his lifetime, Marx was perhaps one of the most influential figures in history. His ideas, particularly those he expounded in his two most notable works, The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, have become the core intellectual tradition for communism and socialism, and many scholars consider him the founder of economic history and sociology. His philosophy significantly influenced communist thinking for the next century. What anarchist was his enemy? More...
Quotation of the Day
Oh, the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called Man! Oh, the little that unhinges it: poor creatures that we are!

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Idiom of the Day

Freudian slip

Any inadvertent verbal or written mistake that reveals, or can be construed as revealing, an unconscious or repressed intention, belief, thought, attitude, etc. Named for the Sigmund Freud, considered the founding father of psychoanalysis, whose work largely focused on the unconscious and repressed elements of the human psyche. More...
Today's Holiday

Kodomo-no-Hi (2023)

Kodomo-no-Hi is a national holiday in Japan that was known as Boys' Day from the 9th century, but became a day for both boys and girls in 1948. Today, the day is observed largely with family picnics. Households with sons erect tall bamboo poles outside the home and attach streamers in the shape of carp for each son. The carp supposedly represents the strength, courage, and determination shown in its upstream journeys. The festivities are part of Golden Week, which also includes Greenery Day and Japan Constitution Memorial Day. More...
Word Trivia

Today's topic: request

ask - A request or question. More...

behest, request - Behest is a stronger term than request. More...

boon - Once meant "request for a favor." More...

precatory - Words of recommendation, request, entreaty, wish, or expectation, employed in wills, as distinguished from express directions. More...

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