Linguists have noticed that many swear words share the same sharp, punchy sounds—hard consonants like “k,” “t,” and “g” that burst out of the mouth rather than flow. When a study examined those sound ...

A baby's first year brings incredible change. In just a few months, babies go from cooing and crawling to making sense of language in ways researchers are only starting to understand. One mystery has ...

As many educators and researchers will attest, there’s no exact science to choosing vocabulary words—no inherent reason the word “detest” is more important to teach than “despise,” or why “compassion” ...

Corrected: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the tiers associated with challenging words. Children who enter kindergarten with a small vocabulary don’t get taught enough ...