Welcome to the website woven for wordaholics, logolepts, and verbivores. Carnivores eat meat; herbivores eat plants and vegetables; verbivores devour words. If you are heels over head (as well as head over heels) in love with words, tarry here a while to graze or, perhaps, feast on the English language. Ours is the only language in which you drive in a parkway and park in a driveway and your nose can run and your feet can smell.

 

The Enduring Legacy of Robert Frost

Posted on Mar 16th, 2024

Pun-up girls and pun gents are pun for all and all for pun!

Posted on Mar 2nd, 2024

What you may not know about the Father of Our Country

Posted on Feb 17th, 2024

Sharing my favorite stories about our American presidents

Posted on Feb 3rd, 2024

It’s rhyme time — so let’s play the game of Inky Pinky

Posted on Jan 29th, 2024

It’s okay to boldly go and purposely split an infinitive

Posted on Jan 6th, 2024

Kids will say the darnedest things about Christmas

Posted on Dec 23rd, 2023

Serving up a Frosty treat for the coming of winter

Posted on Dec 9th, 2023

Like air pollution, grammar violations affect our health

Posted on Nov 25th, 2023

A thanks-giving for our miraculous human adventure

Posted on Nov 11th, 2023

A monster mash of Halloween rhyme, jokes, and riddles

Posted on Oct 29th, 2023

Back to grammar school; yes, there will be a test!

Posted on Oct 14th, 2023

Readers call on the homophone with puns and punctuation

Posted on Sep 30th, 2023

The dazzling success of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’

Posted on Sep 16th, 2023

Here’s my invitation to make beautiful music together

Posted on Sep 2nd, 2023

The English language is ‘the treasure of our tongue’

Posted on Aug 19th, 2023

Here’s a game to attract you to our SD Festival of Books

Posted on Aug 5th, 2023

Can you spot the patterns in each of these strange sentences?

Posted on Jul 22nd, 2023

Answering the telephone can turn out to be a slippery slope

Posted on Jul 8th, 2023

A compact dictionary of stuff-and-nonsense words

Posted on Jun 24th, 2023

Brand new letter play that makes the alphabet dance

Posted on Jun 10th, 2023

How to Solve the Mystifying Case of English Pronouns

Posted on May 27th, 2023

Trust me: I, Richard Lederer, wrote this column

Posted on May 13th, 2023

From punrise to punset, San Diego is a very punny city

Posted on Apr 29th, 2023

Golden opportunities to brush up your Shakespeare

Posted on Apr 15th, 2023

The art of creating puns is a rewording experience

Posted on Mar 18th, 2023

Enjoy this beastly celebration of National Pun Day

Posted on Mar 4th, 2023

I wish you luck in taking this Presidents’ Day quiz

Posted on Feb 18th, 2023

As time goes by, many words wander wondrously

Posted on Feb 4th, 2023

The time of the signs reveals the signs of our times

Posted on Jan 21st, 2023

True confessions of an unrepentant English major

Posted on Jan 7th, 2023

The punderful story of Santa Claus and his reindeer

Posted on Dec 24th, 2022

Our moonstruck language flies us to the moon

Posted on Dec 10th, 2022

San Diego contestant puts plurals in “Jeopardy!”

Posted on Nov 26th, 2022

Food for thought: every day we truly eat our words

Posted on Nov 12th, 2022

U-T readers go from bat to verse for a spooky Halloween

Posted on Oct 29th, 2022

PBS series illuminates the inspiring story of Anne Frank

Posted on Oct 15th, 2022

Language columnist solicits your Halloween poetry

Posted on Oct 1st, 2022

Your Resident Verbivore Reporting from Word Land

Posted on Sep 17th, 2022

Readers Seek Herd Immunity Against Faulty Grammar

Posted on Sep 3rd, 2022

All I really need to know I learned from my dog

Posted on Aug 20th, 2022

The U-T’s Festival of Books is back live and online

Posted on Aug 6th, 2022

Here’s a like-ly story: Avoid clichés like the plague

Posted on Jul 23rd, 2022

How America’s fastest-growing sport got its name

Posted on Jul 9th, 2022

You’ll get a rise out of this inflationary humor

Posted on Jun 25th, 2022

Inside the Entrance to this Column Will Entrance You

Posted on Jun 11th, 2022

A Monumental Time to Honor Lincoln’s Literary Genius

Posted on May 28th, 2022

A Decade of Writing About the Humanness of Language

Posted on May 14th, 2022

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of our Safari Park

Posted on Apr 30th, 2022

Our Renowned Safari Park is ‘Big as All Outdoors’

Posted on Apr 16th, 2022

Second-hand Suffixes Sprinkle Our Language with Fun

Posted on Apr 2nd, 2022

So Many Expressions Turn Out to be Trite as a Cliché

Posted on Mar 19th, 2022

A Buffet of Tidbits to Tickle a Language Lover’s Palate

Posted on Mar 5th, 2022

Tackling More Grammar Questions from the Readers

Posted on Feb 19th, 2022

Grow Your Vocabulary by Digging Down to the Roots

Posted on Feb 5th, 2022

You Can Read Your Way to a More Powerful Vocabulary

Posted on Jan 22nd, 2022

Our Abounding English Language Brims with Synonyms

Posted on Jan 8th, 2022

Union-Tribune Readers Go Out on a Limerick

Posted on Dec 25th, 2021

Be Advised: Don’t Dangle Your Participles in Public

Posted on Nov 27th, 2021

Commemorating the First Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted on Nov 13th, 2021

Let’s Harvest a Pumpkin Patch of Halloween Fun

Posted on Oct 30th, 2021

Today is a perfect time to think about dictionaries

Posted on Oct 16th, 2021

My proverbs column has inspired more proverbs

Posted on Oct 2nd, 2021

Do you ever wonder how wise is proverbial wisdom?

Posted on Sep 18th, 2021

On Labor Day, you may well ask, ‘What’s My Line?’

Posted on Sep 4th, 2021

Where I stand on questions about correct English

Posted on Aug 21st, 2021

Here’s a game of Perfect Matches for book lovers

Posted on Aug 7th, 2021

A column of U-T readers are now a galley of groupies

Posted on Jul 24th, 2021

Collecting Collective Nouns

Posted on Jul 10th, 2021

What’s In a Name? Misnomers lurk everywhere!

Posted on Jun 26th, 2021

A mass of misleading misnomers mark our language

Posted on Jun 12th, 2021

Groak at this lexicon of weird and wonderful words

Posted on May 29th, 2021

The many benefits of being chronologically endowed

Posted on May 15th, 2021

Let’s celebrate the cultural richness of Cinco de Mayo

Posted on May 1st, 2021

Name That Tune for each Shakespeare character

Posted on Apr 17th, 2021

I invite all you booklovers to try these for openers

Posted on Apr 3rd, 2021

Which one is correct: ‘an historic’ or ‘a historic’?

Posted on Mar 27th, 2021

Should we give up on our uppity English language?

Posted on Mar 6th, 2021

How difficult is it to learn the English language?

Posted on Feb 20th, 2021

10 tricky presidential bar bets for Presidents Day

Posted on Feb 6th, 2021

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of ‘All in the Family’

Posted on Jan 23rd, 2021

Coming soon: a numerically special inauguration date

Posted on Jan 9th, 2021

Celebrate the 12 days of Christmas knowledgeably

Posted on Dec 26th, 2020

Celebrating 3 wise men who reinvented Christmas

Posted on Dec 12th, 2020

Can you Name That Tune for each Bible character?

Posted on Nov 28th, 2020

Star upset that ‘irregardless’ has invaded the dictionary

Posted on Nov 14th, 2020

Celebrating a century of Halloween in America

Posted on Oct 31st, 2020

Planet Word Museum to open in Washington DC

Posted on Oct 17th, 2020

I bet you’ll pass this colorful quiz with flying colors

Posted on Oct 3rd, 2020

Here’s a classical primer of political word origins

Posted on Sep 19th, 2020

Under the spell of the rule ‘I before e, except after c’

Posted on Sep 5th, 2020

The Festival of Books celebrates news that stays news

Posted on Aug 22nd, 2020

Light verse from U-T readers will lighten your day

Posted on Aug 8th, 2020

All about handy dandy, super duper rhyming words

Posted on Jul 25th, 2020

Stop, Look and Listen to the Sounds of Our Language

Posted on Jul 11th, 2020

no column this week

Posted on Jul 4th, 2020

A 4th of July Commemoration of Presidential Words

Posted on Jun 27th, 2020

No column this week

Posted on Jun 20th, 2020

Your Resident Grammar Guru Answers Your Questions

Posted on Jun 13th, 2020

No column this week

Posted on Jun 6th, 2020

Wordplay Jokes Guaranteed to Tickle Your Funny Bone

Posted on May 30th, 2020

The Power of Humor: He or She Who Laughs Lasts

Posted on May 16th, 2020

Jest for the pun of it, pun for all and all for pun!

Posted on May 2nd, 2020

To Celebrate Library Week, Play This Bookish Game

Posted on Apr 18th, 2020

No column this week

Posted on Apr 11th, 2020

Get Thee to a Punnery

Posted on Apr 4th, 2020

Sharpen Your Verbal Wits on April Fools’ Posers

Posted on Mar 28th, 2020

Mixed-up Metaphors Hit the Bull’s Eye on the Nose

Posted on Mar 21st, 2020

Exploring the Words We Use to Describe COVID-19

Posted on Mar 14th, 2020

A Timely Example of How Words Wander Wondrously

Posted on Mar 7th, 2020

Words, Words, Words About Our Wordy Presidents

Posted on Feb 29th, 2020

Come Sail on a Small Flotilla of Figures of Speech

Posted on Feb 22nd, 2020

A Select Shelf of Books by Our Writerly Presidents

Posted on Feb 15th, 2020

Reflecting on the Telling Humor of Abraham Lincoln

Posted on Feb 8th, 2020

Probing the Mystery of How Human Language Began

Posted on Feb 1st, 2020

U-T Sports Columnist Gets it Right About SDSU Hoops

Posted on Jan 25th, 2020

Here’s a Useful List of 50 Rules for Writing Good

Posted on Jan 18th, 2020

Weep weep, honk honk! ‘Prepostrophes’ prevail!

Posted on Jan 11th, 2020

Happy New Year! It’s So Nice to Have You Near!

Posted on Jan 4th, 2020

Time to Celebrate the Centennial of Isaac Asimov

Posted on Dec 28th, 2019

Enjoy a Stockingful of Punderful Christmas Humor

Posted on Dec 21st, 2019

Mom Lays It on the Line About the Verbs ‘Lay’ and ‘Lie’

Posted on Dec 14th, 2019

Ipso facto: Every Day We Speak and Write Latin

Posted on Dec 7th, 2019

Nota Bene: Latina non mortua est; Latin is not dead

Posted on Nov 30th, 2019

Thanksgiving is a Day When We Truly Eat Our Words

Posted on Nov 23rd, 2019

A god could very well be hiding in your sentence

Posted on Nov 16th, 2019

The Right Verb Will Complement Your Grammar Skills

Posted on Nov 9th, 2019

Turns Out That “if-then” Logic Isn’t Always Logical

Posted on Nov 2nd, 2019

Successful Aging Expo Evokes Long-ago Memories

Posted on Oct 26th, 2019

The English Language Always has Your Number

Posted on Oct 19th, 2019

Steve Breen’s Cartoon Illustrates the Bard’s Legacy

Posted on Oct 12th, 2019

A Dog’s Love Becomes a Gift That Never Stops Giving

Posted on Oct 5th, 2019

San Diego Raises the Bard for Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Posted on Sep 28th, 2019

Our Beloved Pets Leave Paw Prints on Our Hearts

Posted on Sep 21st, 2019

A Chorus of Music Legends Sport Striking Nicknames

Posted on Sep 14th, 2019

Local Authors Tell Why They Love to and Have to Write

Posted on Sep 7th, 2019

Our Melodious English Language is Music to Our Ears

Posted on Aug 31st, 2019

A Well-Turned Simile Can Make Us Happy as a Clam

Posted on Aug 24th, 2019

The Festival of Books is a Paradise for Bibliophiles

Posted on Aug 17th, 2019

Weighing the Pros and Cons of Political Correctness

Posted on Aug 10th, 2019

Our Language is Moonstruck with Lunar Words

Posted on Aug 3rd, 2019

English Lays Its Cards on the Table of our Tongue

Posted on Jul 27th, 2019

Redundancies are Now the Junk Food of Our Language

Posted on Jul 20th, 2019

Try Your Head and Hand at Solving Classic Riddles

Posted on Jul 13th, 2019

Once Upon a Rhyme Time: the Tale of Chicken Licken

Posted on Jul 6th, 2019

Noah Webster’s American Revolution in Language

Posted on Jun 29th, 2019

Language Insights Into the Games that People Play

Posted on Jun 22nd, 2019

In Giraffic Park We Celebrate the Highest form of Life

Posted on Jun 15th, 2019

Are You Sure That You Are Playing With A Full Deck?

Posted on Jun 8th, 2019

A Visit to the Department of Redundancy Department

Posted on Jun 1st, 2019

Our Body Language Really Doesn’t Make Any Sense

Posted on May 25th, 2019

Readers Recall the Teachers Who Shaped Their Lives

Posted on May 18th, 2019

On-Word and Up-Word with ‘Lederer on Language’

Posted on May 11th, 2019

A Timely Tribute to the Teachers Who Change Our Lives

Posted on May 3rd, 2019

The Bilingual Department of Redundancy Department

Posted on Apr 27th, 2019

English is Cultivated by Down-to-Earth Metaphors

Posted on Apr 20th, 2019

Sonnet Honors San Diego’s Legendary Oceanographer

Posted on Apr 13th, 2019

How a Little Library Changed One Woman’s Life Forever

Posted on Apr 6th, 2019

In Everyday Phrases, Alliteration Strikes the Nation

Posted on Mar 30th, 2019

There’s a Lot of Fun in Making the Alphabet Dance

Posted on Mar 23rd, 2019

Rounding up a St. Patrick’s Day Herd of Irish Bulls

Posted on Mar 16th, 2019

Tales Guaranteed to Cast a Spell of Proper English

Posted on Mar 9th, 2019

Have Some Brainy Fun with the Lighter Side of Science

Posted on Mar 2nd, 2019

Exploring the Ups and Downs of Our English Words

Posted on Feb 23rd, 2019

Here’s Your Chance to Cast a Spell of Good English

Posted on Feb 16th, 2019

How Do We Know What We Know About Language?

Posted on Feb 9th, 2019

The Striking Creativity of African-American Names

Posted on Feb 2nd, 2019

Biblical People Reveal Themselves in Their Own Words

Posted on Jan 26th, 2019

Uncovering the True Origins of Popular Expressions

Posted on Jan 19th, 2019

Artist Vincent van Gogh Painted With Vivid Words

Posted on Jan 12th, 2019

It’s a boy! It’s a girl! It’s a name! It’s an identity!

Posted on Jan 5th, 2019

As a Rule of Thumb, Avoid Political Incorrectness

Posted on Dec 29th, 2018

Santa Claws Wishes Us a Furry Meowy Christmas

Posted on Dec 22nd, 2018

Will PETA’s Animal Advocacy Bring Home the Bagel?

Posted on Dec 15th, 2018

See If You Can Translate These Pompous Proverbs

Posted on Dec 8th, 2018

Like, What’s Literally Going on With Our Language?

Posted on Dec 1st, 2018

Are You Ready to Take a Tour of a City of Names?

Posted on Nov 24th, 2018

Thanksgiving is a Time When We Truly Eat Our Words

Posted on Nov 17th, 2018

At Its Root, English is a Down-to-Earth Language

Posted on Nov 10th, 2018

Now is the Perfect Time to Laugh at Political Tickles

Posted on Nov 3rd, 2018

Celebrate Halloween With Some Monstrous Verses

Posted on Oct 27th, 2018

A Late-Edition Dictionary for the Upcoming Expo

Posted on Oct 20th, 2018

For All Intensive Purposes, Hone in on Faulty Phrases

Posted on Oct 13th, 2018

Readers Share a Magnificent Obsession With Books

Posted on Oct 6th, 2018

San Diego Raises the Bard for Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Posted on Sep 29th, 2018

Celebrating the Power of Books to Enrich Our Lives

Posted on Sep 22nd, 2018

The Readers Weigh in About Sexism in Our Language

Posted on Sep 15th, 2018

Grandkids Never Fail to say the Darnedest Things

Posted on Sep 8th, 2018

A Labor Day Display of Words That Mean Business

Posted on Sep 1st, 2018

What’s in a Name? A Cornucopia of Power and Joy

Posted on Aug 25th, 2018

Here’s How You Can Tell if You are a True Book Lover

Posted on Aug 18th, 2018

To Honor a PGA Centennial, Take This Golf Course

Posted on Aug 11th, 2018

Is the English Language Prejudiced Against Women?

Posted on Aug 4th, 2018

Local Granny and Granddaughter Dispute Grammar

Posted on Jul 28th, 2018

Our High-tech World Alters Our Words and Phrases

Posted on Jul 21st, 2018

How Cartoons and Comic Strips Shape Our Language

Posted on Jul 14th, 2018

Are You Guilty of Phubbing the People Around You?

Posted on Jul 7th, 2018

A July 4th Declaration of Linguistic Independence

Posted on Jun 30th, 2018

Here’s the Take-Away on the Verbs ‘Bring’ and ‘Take’

Posted on Jun 23rd, 2018

Thank You for Your Wise and Witty Birthday Wishes

Posted on Jun 16th, 2018

Why June is the Perfect Month for Perfect Marriages

Posted on Jun 9th, 2018

This Dictionary Illuminates the Meaning of Everything

Posted on Jun 2nd, 2018

Joyful Thoughts About Embracing My 80th Birthday

Posted on May 26th, 2018

Immortal Mortals Live on Because of Their Names

Posted on May 19th, 2018

Lionized Rex the Lion Roars on at Our San Diego Zoo

Posted on May 12th, 2018

Thank You for Your Valued Support of My Column

Posted on May 5th, 2018

May This Column Go Over Better Than a Lead Balloon

Posted on Apr 28th, 2018

U-T Readers Work as Super-Duper Blooper Snoopers

Posted on Apr 21st, 2018

Did William Shakespeare Really Write Shakespeare?

Posted on Apr 14th, 2018

The True Meaning of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’

Posted on Apr 7th, 2018

Celebrate Psalm Pun Day with the Easter Bunny

Posted on Mar 31st, 2018

Answers to Your One and Only Grammar Questions

Posted on Mar 24th, 2018

For U-T Readers a Pun is the Highest Form of Wit

Posted on Mar 17th, 2018

A Saint Patrick’s Day Gallery of Famous Irish People

Posted on Mar 10th, 2018

The Readers’ Epitaphs Focus on the ‘Fun’ in ‘Funeral’

Posted on Feb 24th, 2018

Heads Without Tails in Our Combobulated Language

Posted on Feb 17th, 2018

Humorous Epitaphs Manage to Get in the Last Word

Posted on Feb 10th, 2018

Eloquent Epitaphs Speak to Us From Beyond the Grave

Posted on Feb 3rd, 2018

Here’s the Absolute Last Word on Famous Last Words

Posted on Jan 27th, 2018

Should We Really Feel Bad About ‘Feeling Badly’?

Posted on Jan 20th, 2018

In So Many Words and Phrases the Eyes Have It

Posted on Jan 13th, 2018

Winston Churchill’s Finest Phrases Still Ring Out

Posted on Jan 6th, 2018

Legendary Dick Enberg was a Man of His Words

Posted on Dec 30th, 2017

A Visit from St. Nicholas to Dog Lovers Everywhere

Posted on Dec 23rd, 2017

Can You Figure Out What My Aunt Matilda Likes?

Posted on Dec 16th, 2017

There are So Many Ways to Say, ‘You’re Fired!’

Posted on Dec 9th, 2017

Lunatic English is a Language for the Verbally Insane

Posted on Dec 2nd, 2017

Caring Readers Pose Questions About English Grammar

Posted on Nov 25th, 2017

Every Day You Say a Mouthful of Food for Thought

Posted on Nov 18th, 2017

We Inherit Many a Good Word from the Good Book

Posted on Nov 11th, 2017

The Inspiring Story of One Man’s Leap into Literacy

Posted on Nov 4th, 2017

Goblin Up a Full Corpse Feast of Halloween Puns

Posted on Oct 28th, 2017

Brand Names Leave Their Trade-Marks On Language

Posted on Oct 21st, 2017

Sonnet Honors a Great San Diego Oceanographer

Posted on Oct 14th, 2017

Must Our English Language Remain Under a Spell?

Posted on Oct 7th, 2017

High Achievers are Distinguished, Not Extinguished

Posted on Sep 30th, 2017

San Diego Raises the Bard for Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Posted on Sep 23rd, 2017

The Plane Truth About Our High-Flying Language

Posted on Sep 16th, 2017

U-T Book Fest Illuminated Our City’s Bibliophilia

Posted on Sep 9th, 2017

A Labor Day Celebration of Punderful Name Badges

Posted on Sep 2nd, 2017

Getting Oriented to Preventive Ways to be Correct

Posted on Aug 26th, 2017

A Constellation of Words Go Dancing With the Stars

Posted on Aug 19th, 2017

Lots of Literacy and Learning at the Festival of Books

Posted on Aug 12th, 2017

Fabulous Fables Live On In Our Everyday Expressions

Posted on Aug 5th, 2017

Any Way You Look at it, English is a Crazy Language

Posted on Jul 29th, 2017

Emily Dickinson Climbed the Hilltop of the Heart

Posted on Jul 22nd, 2017

Be Careful Not to Dangle Your Participles in Public

Posted on Jul 15th, 2017

An All-star Line-up of Colorful Baseball Nicknames

Posted on Jul 8th, 2017

A Yankee Doodle Dandy of a Word for the 4th of July

Posted on Jul 1st, 2017

Dynamic Trios Populate Our Lives and Our Language

Posted on Jun 24th, 2017