Sam Walters is the associate editor at Discover Magazine who writes and edits articles covering topics like archaeology, paleontology, ecology, and evolution, and manages a few print magazine sections ...

A swear word is like a linguistic punch in the nose. Virtually every language and culture has them—and virtually every language and culture formally disapproves of them. But that doesn’t stop them ...

Learning English can be tricky when words sound the same but mean completely different things. In this video, Claire explains ...

For more than 100 years the standard view among traditional language theorists was that, with the exception of onomatopoeia like "fizz" and "beep," the sound of a word tells us nothing about how it is ...

New research shows that some sound combinations, like those in the word 'virus,' elicit more emotionally intense responses than others. This may play a role in both children's language acquisition and ...

These four sounds are missing from some of the seven words you can never say on television, and the pattern prevails in other languages too, researchers say. By Elizabeth Preston “Holy motherforking ...

Most children struggle with certain sounds in speech at one point or another. What can you do to help them along? If your child is getting muddled up, or unable to say certain sounds at all, take a ...