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Language Exploration and Wordplay


For several years, some colleagues and I have been stressing to prospective and practicing teachers how important it is to use language exploration and wordplay within language-arts classrooms. Below are listed several sites that can help teachers find interesting examples of such explorations and language games.

 

Actual Newspaper Headlines
Examples of how headlines can go wrong

Anagramgenius
Calls itself the "definitive anagram site"

A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia
Examples of all sorts of linguistic curiosities

Etymologic
An interactive word game based on etymology

Etymologically Speaking
A list of some curious word origins

A Game a Day
A new game each day

Richard Lederer's Verbivore
The site for wordaholics, logolepts, and verbivores. This is the site that I would recommend that people start with.

Origin of Phrases
A page that investigates how common phrases came to be

Pittsburghese
The unofficial language of the Steel City

Tom Swifties
I love most of these adverbial puns. Here is a list of Swifties, arranged alphabetically

Words and Wordplay
"A gallimaufry of logodaedaly and legerdemain"

Word Play
Sites that feature fun with words

Word Play and Language Humor Index
From the Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere

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