31 Comments
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L B Rose's avatar

I think a perfect model of "hypocrite" is Mitch McConnell. I hope his photo will be included in the dictionary.

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Kate Hutchinson's avatar

And Modern-Day Faustus.

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KnockKnockGreenpeace's avatar

Thanks for this insight! That's heartening. And yet ... I'm a professional editor and have noticed that the thesaurus offerings from merriamwebster.com and thesaurus.com are limited in scope, particularly when a word is used as more than one part of speech. It looks decidedly AI-generated. Coincidence? (My old print thesaurus literally fell apart. Guess I'll need a vintage one.)

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Laura's avatar

I've also noticed the limitations in both dictionary.com and thesaurus.com. I'm a former English and journalism instructor, as well as journalist. I don't use a hard-copy dictionary or thesaurus most of the time, but I have downloaded both to my computer and have fairly easy access to them.

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KnockKnockGreenpeace's avatar

It seems like it recently got worse. Gee, just as AI was getting traction. Hmm.

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Patricia Rose-Wagner's avatar

As a writer, English major and lover of language, I have noticed how challenging it is to find accurate definitions. Time to invest in a vintage thesaurus( have a great older dictionary

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Bruce Bartlett's avatar

Linguistic activism at its finest

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Trisha Miller's avatar

I agree with KnockKnockGreenpeace - I'm heartened to see this....and yet..... it does read a bit like they're leaning on AI generated examples, possibly by Grok, which seems to take a particular delight in contradicting anything put out by Musk or the current regime. I haven't decided if Grok is becoming sentient AND liberal? Or just a result (more likely) of a somewhat lefty-leaning programming team or individual. Either way, I'm enjoying it!

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A Liberal Librarian's avatar

Well, "truth has a liberal bias". And I read earlier this morning that Musk is starting to talk about making sure Grok gets "isolated" from too many examples on the internet.

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LiverpoolFCfan's avatar

Love these contextual definitions.

Used to do that for my high school students to make them laugh.

Keep it up! It's a great teaching tool for the intellectually challenged.

Oh! And

Without context, there is no understanding.

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Rita Hayen's avatar

This is beautiful. Just for fun, we checked example sentences for narcissist, childish, and clowncar. Dictionary.com - thank you!

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Lynn McCloud Dorfman's avatar

This article is inspired! There are nuanced ways to draw a line in these shifting sands. Thank you!

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Susie's avatar

This is so very very cool. I am so proud of these websites and, once again, the Contrarian for elevating this quiet resistance. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

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Laura Sythes Kuhn's avatar

I needed this today.

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Marti Mullen's avatar

That is a beautiful and hopeful thing.

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Patricia Forst's avatar

The power of words. These sites have backbone!

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Wendy horgan's avatar

Wouldn't believe it if I weren't reading it!

Sooooo cool!

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Randi Hacker's avatar

Excellent.

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Joanne J Henry's avatar

As a reader of dictionaries and thesauruses (or thesauri, if you prefer), I'm delighted with the effort to stay relevant regardless of how they got there. Thanks for the article. Sometimes words are the only weapon we have.

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Scott Whitmire's avatar

I never thought of myself as subversive, but I’ve always had a touch of it. I love this. The more we can poke that bear, the better.

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constance's avatar

Just tickled!

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