Daily Content Archive

(as of Sunday, July 11, 2021)
Word of the Day

funambulist

Definition:(noun) An acrobat who performs on a tightrope or slack rope.
Synonyms:tightrope walker
Usage: My daughter was enchanted by the funambulist crossing the tightrope above us at the circus.
Daily Grammar Lesson

Alternative Questions

Alternative questions are questions that provide a choice among two or more answers. These choices might be explicitly stated in the question (identified by the coordinating conjunction "or"), or they might be implied by the context. What are alternative questions also known as? More...
Article of the Day

Republic of Indian Stream

From 1832 to 1835, the Republic of Indian Stream was a small constitutional republic in the border area that divides the US state of New Hampshire from Quebec, Canada. Indian Stream was able to establish itself as an independent nation because the Treaty of Paris had left an ambiguous boundary between the US and Canada at the end of the American Revolution. The republic joined New Hampshire after being occupied by the state's militia, but not before what bizarre incident almost sparked a war? More...
This Day in History

The Oka Crisis (1990)

This 1990 confrontation between the Mohawk nation and the town of Oka, Quebec, was the first of several violent conflicts between the First Nations and the Canadian government. It began when developers tried to turn a plot of land into a golf course. Because that land contained a burial ground and sacred pine grove, members of the Mohawk community blockaded the area. Canadian troops were sent in, and a 78-day standoff ensued, ending with the Mohawks' surrender. What happened to the golf course? More...
Today's Birthday

Elwyn Brooks "E. B." White (1899)

After starting his writing career as a reporter, White settled in New York and became known for his impeccable prose style as a contributing editor of New Yorker magazine. Talented in diverse genres, he collaborated with James Thurber on satire, wrote the classic children's books Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web, and revised William Strunk Jr.'s grammar and composition text The Elements of Style, which became a definitive writing guide. How did White know Strunk? More...
Quotation of the Day
Acknowledgement of one another's faults is the highest duty imposed by our love of truth.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

Idiom of the Day

think (someone) hung the moon and the stars

To consider someone to be extraordinary, the best, or exceptionally wonderful. More...
Today's Holiday

Feast Day of the Flemish Community (2023)

Each of the autonomous regions of Belgium observes its own feast day. The Flemish Community celebrates its heritage on the anniversary of The Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302. On the feast day, all Flemish governmental offices close for the holiday. Various cities, municipalities, and private groups hold cultural events; local Flemings and those resettled throughout the world pause to give a toast to Flanders; and many gather to hear the minister-president of the Flemish Community deliver a speech marking the anniversary. More...
Word Trivia

Today's topic: sediment

decant - Means to pour wine, taking pains not to disturb any sediment at the bottom; decant comes from Latin de- and canthus, "angular lip of a jug." More...

allogenic, allochthonous - Geological material that has been transported and then accumulates elsewhere is allochthonous, and sediment carried by a river is allogenic. More...

lithification - The process of compaction of sediment into stone. More...

swarve - To choke with sediment. More...

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