The On Language column in The New York Times Magazine is no more. Read Ben Zimmer's farewell column nyti.ms/futuretense and follow on Twitter @bgzimmer
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Articles by Ben Zimmer
Slate Crossword: Green That’s Massaged to Make It Less Bitter (Four Letters)
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Slate Crossword: Summer Camp Crafts (Six Letters)
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Think You’re Smarter Than Slate’s Editorial Director? Find Out With This Week’s News Quiz.
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Draculin Is Found in the Saliva of Which Mammal?
Slate Crossword: Sneaky Fix to Online Copy (11 Letters)
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Slate Crossword: Asimov Anthology That Foresaw the Ethical Quandaries of A.I. (Six Letters)
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06.29.26 -- Breaking Barriers In Rare Disease Clinical Trials
Smart Sourcing: Patient Recruitment & Retention Showcase, a virtual event for clinical teams to explore and compare top patient recruitment and engagement partners. Expect live, side-by-side comparisons, real-time Q&A, and practical insights to boost enrollment, diversity, and retention. Ideal for Clinical Ops, Site Engagement, and Vendor Management teams. Leave with a vetted shortlist of partners and actionable takeaways—without the time, cost, or travel of traditional conferences.
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Slate Crossword: Towns of Unusual Size in New York? (11 Letters)
Slate Crossword: Something Taken for a Trip? (Three Letters)
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Breaking Barriers In Rare Disease Clinical Trials
By Ben Zimmer, CEO, Priovant Therapeutics Conducting large-scale clinical trials in rare diseases presents a unique set of scientific and operational challenges. Dermatomyositis, a serious autoimmune condition affecting only an estimated five to 10 people per million each year, has historically been difficult to study at scale due to limited patient populations and complex disease management.
Slate Crossword: Medium for Mozart or Monk (Five Letters)
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Slate Crossword: Grammarian’s Gripes (Seven Letters)
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2025 Word of the Year Is “Slop”
New Orleans Marriott–Jan. 9—The American Dialect Society, in its 36th annual words-of-the-year vote, selected slop as the Word of the Year for 2025. More than three hundred attendees took part in the deliberations and voting, in an event hosted in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America’s annual meeting. The word slop was recognized for its widespread use for low-quality, high-quantity content, most typically produced by generative AI.
Slate Crossword: Upstate New York Town Noted for Its Mini Chili Dogs (Four Letters)
32,355 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it faster than others? 32,355 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it faster than others?
2024 Word of the Year Is “Rawdog”
Philadelphia Marriott Downtown–Jan. 10—The American Dialect Society, in its 35th annual words-of-the-year vote, selected rawdog as the Word of the Year for 2024. More than three hundred attendees took part in the deliberations and voting, in an event hosted in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America’s annual meeting.
Slate Crossword: Flat Figure? (Six Letters)
Skip to the content Unsure of What Happened While It Was Asleep Featured Clue 16-Down: PEG Read about it in Slate: For years, De La Soul’s 1989 debut album 3 Feet High and Rising was unavailable on streaming. That’s because its 24 riotous tracks were made from hundreds of digital samples with a “create first and ask permission later” attitude. Those samples were eventually cleared, but Dan Charnas argues it’s time to legalize the idea at hip-hop’s very core.
Slate Crossword: Flat Figure? (Six Letters)
29,625 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it faster than others? 29,625 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it faster than others?
Slate Crossword: Ariana Grande Tune That’s No. 2 on Billboard’s “25 Best Christmas Songs of the 21st Century” (11 Letters)
Skip to the content Featured Clue 1-Across: ADAMS Read about it in Slate: The Democratic mayor’s alleged crimes are wild. Wait till you hear about the rest of what he’s done. Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! What Is the Meaning of the Latin Phrase Pax Vobiscum? Slate Games Crossword
Slate Crossword: Name for the # Symbol (Likely Inspired by a Sac and Fox Sports Legend) (10 Letters)
Skip to the content Some Kind of High-Art Reality Show Featured Clue 42-Across: SCAM ALERTS Read about it in Slate: The next A.I. scam is here—and it could cost you thousands. Here's how to protect yourself. Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Slate Games Crossword
Slate Crossword: Town You’d Want to Get the Heck Out Of (Five Letters)
Skip to the content Featured Clue 12-Across: GLADIATOR II Read about it in Slate: Ridley Scott’s new prequel is less a reinvention of the original 2000 blockbuster than a curiously literal retread of its plot beats, characters, and themes. Slate film critic Dana Stevens was not entertained. Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Slate Games Crossword
Slate Crossword: Town You’d Want to Get the Heck Out Of (Five Letters)
The Daily Crossword was played 8,541 times last week. Can you solve it faster than others? The Daily Crossword was played 8,541 times last week. Can you solve it faster than others?
Slate Crossword: Kit Kat or Krispy Kreme (Five Letters)
Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for Nov. 8, 2024. View comments
Slate Crossword: What Slate Used to Be Called, in Crossword Clues (Five Letters)
Skip to the content Featured Clue 12-Across: OLIVE GARDEN Read about it in Slate: “I’m not going to lie, I went every other day": An Olive Garden super fan rhapsodizes about the chain's Never-Ending Pasta Pass, and what it's like to eat unlimited pasta for a month. Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Slate Games
Slate Crossword: What Slate Used to Be Called, in Crossword Clues (Five Letters)
Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for Oct. 21, 2024.
Slate Crossword: The First Feline One Was Named CopyCat (Five Letters)
Skip to the content A Specific Taste, for Specific People Featured Clue 8-Down: TONTO Read about it in Slate: Even if Depp hadn’t made some rather boneheaded comments about his intentions in bringing back Tonto, the Native American sidekick in Gore Verbinski’s Lone Ranger reboot, the resurrection would have faced scrutiny for reinforcing ethnic stereotypes, Aisha Harris writes.
Slate Crossword: Linda Ronstadt Hit … or a Repeated Lyric in Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” (Eleven Letters)
Skip to the content The World's Greatest Media Creation Ever Featured Clue 49-Across: BRIAN TYREE HENRY Hear more about it in this episode of Thirst Aid Kit: When it comes to having the range, there is one man in particular who hits all the high notes—Brian Tyree Henry can make you feel joy, despair, camaraderie, pleasure, or pain. How can one man contain all these multitudes? Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Slate Games
Slate Crossword: Linda Ronstadt Hit … or a Repeated Lyric in Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” (Eleven Letters)
Skip to the content Some Nuance and Well-Deserved Fury Featured Clue 49-Across: BRIAN TYREE HENRY Hear more about it in this episode of Thirst Aid Kit: When it comes to having the range, there is one man in particular who hits all the high notes—Brian Tyree Henry can make you feel joy, despair, camaraderie, pleasure, or pain. How can one man contain all these multitudes? Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Slate Games
Slate Crossword: Linda Ronstadt Hit … or a Repeated Lyric in Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” (Eleven Letters)
Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for Sept. 28, 2024. View comments
Slate Crossword: Number That Rises Annually (Three Letters)
Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for Sept. 27, 2024. View comments
Slate Crossword: Chips, to Brits (Six Letters)
Skip to the content Bill of Rights, Freedom of Speech, Etc. Featured Clue 6-Down: A.I.-GENERATED Read more about it in Slate: Heather Tal Murphy set out to answer why artificial intelligence is still so bad at creating hands—and discovered another disturbing feature of the images. Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Slate Games
Slate Crossword: Chips, to Brits (Six Letters)
Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for Sept. 11, 2024. View comments
The Second Crossword Book: "Buy it and Estrange Your Family!"
In August 1924, just four months after the publication of the book thatset off the crossword craze, Max Schuster and Richard Simon were back with a new collection, dubbed The Cross Word Puzzle Book, Second Series.
How a Term for Trains Has Become the Go-Ahead in Any Trade
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Slate Crossword: Eagle’s Offensive Equipment? (Five Letters)
Skip to the content Featured Clue 3-Down: VENN Read about it in Slate: From Venn diagrams to coconut trees to Charli XCX, Kamala’s brat summer is here, with meme capital aplenty. Dark Brandon could never. Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Slate Games
Slate Crossword: Eagle’s Offensive Equipment? (Five Letters)
Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for Aug. 26, 2024. View comments
The Crossword Champion vs. "the Lady Wizard of the Art"
Three months after the first-ever crossword puzzle championship, held at the National Cross Word Puzzle Convention in New York on May 23, 1924, one newspaper columnist tried to stir up a good-natured rivalry between the top two competitors.
The Wall Street Journal
As Kyiv invades Russia, Ukrainian soldiers are overmatched at least five-to-one in some areas. Few casualties are replaced. Deployments in the trenches can stretch for months.6 min read Watch: How Ukraine Pulled Off Its Invasion Live Markets Updates Contracts tied to the Nasdaq-100 led the gains after the S&P 500 rose for a sixth consecutive session.
Slate Crossword: Gymnast Who Scored Perfect 10s at the 1976 Olympics, Familiarly (Five Letters)
Skip to the content Featured Clue 45-Down: IRISH Read about it in Slate: I have a theory about why all the best young actors right now are from Ireland. Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Which Type of Creature Is a Guillemot? Slate Games
Slate Crossword: Gymnast Who Scored Perfect 10s at the 1976 Olympics, Familiarly (Five Letters)
Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for Aug. 4, 2024. View comments
Slate Crossword: Proulx Who Wrote the Short Story “Brokeback Mountain” (Five Letters)
Skip to the content Featured Clue 11-Across: INSTA FAMOUS Read about it in Slate: What's it like to have one of the most coveted handles on Instagram? The owner of @josh explains. Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Slate Crossword: Font Whose Use in Avatar Was Scrutinized by Ryan Gosling in an SNL Skit (Seven Letters) Slate Games
Slate Crossword: Proulx Who Wrote the Short Story “Brokeback Mountain” (Five Letters)
Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for July 15, 2024. View comments
Slate Crossword: Either Designer of an Iconic Lounge Chair of the ’50s (Five Letters)
Skip to the content Featured Clue 13-Down: BTS Read about it in Slate: How the Korean boy band made history with “Life Goes On,” the Hot 100’s first Korean-language No. 1. Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Which Rodent Exudes a Musky-Smelling Liquid Called Castoreum? Slate Games
Slate Crossword: Either Designer of an Iconic Lounge Chair of the ’50s (Five Letters)
Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for July 5, 2024. View comments
Slate Crossword: Where George Santos Played College Volleyball [Citation Needed] (Six Letters)
Skip to the content Featured Clue 21-Across: LSD Read about it in Slate: An expert in underground LSD packaging shows off one of his favorites. It helps explain the whole subculture. *** Are you enjoying Slate's crossword? Take this survey to give us feedback on we can make our games even better. Challenge your friends to today’s puzzle! Slate Games
Slate Crossword: Where George Santos Played College Volleyball [Citation Needed] (Six Letters)
Ready for some wordplay? Sharpen your skills with Slate’s puzzle for June 17, 2024. View comments
Publishers Weekly: The Cross Word Puzzle Solved
Ever since the crossword craze kicked off on April 10, 1924 with The Cross Word Puzzle Book, a mystery had lingered in the publishing world. Who was behind the publication, which bore the nondescript imprint of the Plaza Publishing Company? A month and a half after the book appeared and catapulted to the top the best-sellers' list, Publishers Weekly could finally divulge the answer to the mystery.
The Championship Speed Contest
Here's another recap of the First National Cross Word Puzzle Convention of May 18, 1924, this one from the skeptics at The Boston Globe. "We vacillated," writes "Cross Ed" in the May 25th edition of the Globe, "as to whether or not we should go, until suddenly it dawned on us that here was our everlasting chance to settle that burning question over which there is so much controversy—Are Puzzlers People, or Are They Nuts?" Those amassed evidently passed the test: "... not a Nut could we see.
May 18, 1924: The convention
On this day 100 years ago, the First National Cross Word Puzzle Convention took place in the Ambassador Hotel in New York City. We've already covered the announcement earlier in the month and some chatter leading up to it, but now the date is upon us. Admission was free, and tickets doubled as a program of the festivities. We here at Crossword Craze have the privilege of sharing a new high-resolution scan of one of those tickets from the personal collection of Will Shortz.
Cross-Word Puzzlers to Hold [10-Letter Word Meaning Meet]
The crossword convention was coming! Lucy Jeanne Price broke the news in her May 6, 1924 syndicated column, but other journalists amplified the drumbeat in the days leading up to the May 18th convention in New York. One newspaper that gave the convention plenty of advance hype was the New York Herald Tribune. While its crosstown rival the New York World may have first popularized the puzzle, the Herald Tribune was no slouch in the crossword department, as we've already seen.
May 11, 1924: Crosswords invade the newspaper funnies
— 4 min read The crossword craze of the mid-1920s infiltrated all aspects of popular culture, and that included the realm of newspaper comics. One hundred years ago today, cartoonist and humorist Clare Briggs dedicated a full-color Sunday page to a crossword-solving exchange between the characters Joe and Vi, the titular stars of his strip Mr. and Mrs. Clare A. Briggs (1875–1930) was a celebrity cartoonist pioneer with his relatable and humorous scenarios of everyday Americans.
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