Clear Answers for Common Questions

Language and The Humanities

We tackle questions regarding figures-of-speech, philosophy, logic and language.

Who is Lilith? What is Thai? What is Urdu? What is Irony? What is Farsi? What is Jihad? What is Argot? What is Haiku? What is a Pyx? What is a Jedi? Who is Jeeves? What is a PhD? What is Pinyin? What is ITUNA? What is Khmer? What is Oktoih? What is a Verb? Who is Gawain? What is an Imp? What is Frisian? What is French? Who is Beowulf? What is a Noun? What is Swahili? What is Xanadu? What is Yiddish? What is Voodoo? What is Nahuatl? What is Slander? What are Runes? What is Subtext? What is Chivalry? What is a Vowel? What is Spanish? What is a Caliph? What is a Simile? What is a Cliché? What is a Rebus? What is Ideology? What is a Centaur? What is an Idiom? What is an Auror? Who is Mammon? What is Penance? What is a Copula? What is Pig Latin? What is Empathy? What is a Dragon? What are Hobbits? What is a Parody? What is a Pantun? What is a Muggle? What is Foolscap? What is Mandarin? What is Biopower? What is Grammar? Who Is Jane Eyre? Who is Narcissus? What is a Klingon? What is Chutzpah? What is an Adage? What is a Sestina? What is Quidditch? What is the Hijrah? What is SAT Prep? What Is a Horcrux? What is a Stringer? What is a Linguist? What is a Breviary? Who is Moby Dick? What is Hyperbole? What is a Phoenix? What is Phonetics? What is a Paradox? What is an Outline? What is a Bestiary? What is a Tall Tale? What is a Limerick? What is Phonology? What is Plagiarism? What is Genealogy? What is Curriculum? What is the Kraken? What is a Glossary? What is Free Verse? What is a Labyrinth? What is Scripture? Who is Rhett Butler? Who is Nancy Drew? What is an Eponym? Who is Harry Potter? What is a Faux Pas? What is Morphology? What is Objectivism? What is Thin-Slicing? Who is James Bond? What is a Chiasmus? What is NaNoWriMo? What is an Acronym? Who is Anne Shirley? What is Immutability? What is a Mnemonic? What is a Book Club? What is a Philologist? What are Logograms? What is Cut and Run? What is Eschatology? What is Demography? What are Diphthongs? What is a Copyeditor? What is the TOEFL®? What is an Anagram? What is a Monograph? What is Flash Fiction? What does OHI Mean? What is High German? What is Antimetabole? Is Severus Snape Evil? What is a Preposition? What is Lexicography? What is a Contraction? Who is Mother Goose? What is Confucianism? Who is Hercule Poirot? What are Tenterhooks? What is Quid Pro Quo? What is a Spin Doctor? What is a Red Herring? What is a Silver Bullet? Who is Gordon Gekko? What is the Bar Exam? What is New Criticism? What is BookCrossing? What is a First Edition? What is Transliteration? What is a Skinner Box? What is an Interrobang? What does Moot Mean? What are Dolch Words? What is a Smart Aleck? What is the Ivy League? Who is Fred Flintstone? What is a Syntactician? What is Onomatopoeia? Who is Lord Voldemort? What is Absolute Truth? What is a Graphologist? Who is John Steinbeck? What is the True Cross? What are Writer's Clips? What is Schadenfreude? What is the Knight Bus? What is an Open Letter? What is Foreshadowing? What is Deconstruction? What are Hermeneutics? What are Scare Tactics? What is Adjective Order? What is the New Yorker? Who is Holden Caulfield? What is Esprit de Corps? What are Hypomnemata? Who is Paddington Bear? Who Writes Dictionaries? What is Phenomenology? What is the Golden Rule? Who is Madame Defarge? Who are the Hardy Boys? What is an Anachronism? Who is Huckleberry Finn? What is New Historicism? Who is George Lamming? What are Graphic Novels? Who is Elizabeth Bennet? What is a Literary Canon? What is the Ripple Effect? What is an Encyclopedia? What Is a Scoring Rubric? What are the Liberal Arts? What is a Proust Scholar? What is a Pyrrhic Victory? What is the Floo Network? What is a Tongue Twister? Why Should I Study Latin? What is a Spring Chicken? What is "Herding Kittens"? What are Cultural Studies? What is a Nursery Rhyme? What is a Feeding Frenzy? What is a Sans Serif Font? What is a Runcible Spoon? Who is Ebenezer Scrooge? Who are the Little Women? What is Bahasa Indonesia? What is Low Hanging Fruit? What is the Rosetta Stone? What is a Zero Sum Game? What is Collateral Damage? What is a One Horse Town? What is a Freelance Writer? What is a Curriculum Vitae? Is Dumbledore Really Dead? What is Anthropomorphism? What are the Seven Sisters? What is the Mirror of Erised? What is a Language School? What is an Epistolary Novel? When was the Bible Written? What is a Run-On Sentence? What is the Marauder's Map? What is Science of the Mind? What is Nonverbal Language? What is Alice in Wonderland? What is a "Flash in the Pan"? What is the New York Times? What is the Cockney Dialect? What is a Waldorf Education? Who is Little Lord Fauntleroy? What is Grammatical Gender? What is the Flying Dutchman? What is Deductive Reasoning? What is Handwriting Analysis? How Can I Become a Stringer? What is a Certificate Program? What does Penultimate Mean? What Is the Great Vowel Shift? What are Portmanteau Words? What is An Appeal to Ridicule? How Can I Become a Librarian? How Can I Improve My English? Who were the Romantic Poets? What is the Associated Press? What is Communicative Action? What is Black Lawrence Press? What are the Bantu Languages? What are Aristotle's Categories? What Does an ESL Teacher Do? What is The Adirondack Review? What is a Curriculum Specialist? What are Heuristics and Biases? In Writing, What is an Audience? What does "Just Deserts" Mean? What is the Allegory of the Cave? What is a Five Paragraph Essay? What is Letters to a Young Poet? What Does the "Hot Seat" Mean? What was the First Printed Book? What Does Caveat Emptor Mean? How Real are Newspaper Stories? What is a Constructed Language? Should I Write a Thank You Note? What are the Five Pillars of Islam? In Harry Potter, What is Azkaban? What is Geopolitical Environment? What does Having the Fear mean? What is American Sign Language? How Can I Become More Tolerant? In Harry Potter, What is Gringotts? What does it Mean to be Quixotic? In Greek Myth, Who Is Cassandra? What is Internet Essay Plagiarism? How Can I Learn to Think Critically? What is Six Degrees of Separation? What Characterizes Gothic Fiction? In Harry Potter, will Fawkes Return? What are Gender Neutral Pronouns? What are Some Famous Bar Jokes? What is the Metaphysics of Quality? What does Deus Ex Machina Mean? What are Communication Disorders? What is Reader Response Criticism? What is Steampunk Science Fiction? What is the Funniest Joke Ever Told? In Greek Mythology, who was Icarus? What is the Department of Mysteries? What are English Language Learners? What are the Three Laws of Robotics? What Was the German Enlightenment? What is the Oxford English Dictionary? Where Did the Term "OK" Come From? What is the White House Press Corps? Why Did Romeo and Juliet Have to Die? In Education, What is Print Awareness? In Law, What is Balancing the Equities? What is Meant by the Term "Rat Race?" What is the Philosophy of Mathematics? In Greek Mythology, who was Penelope? When are the Twelve Days of Christmas? What Does it Mean to Get Off Scot-Free? What Does it Mean to "Stay the Course"? What Does it Mean to "Knock On Wood"? How Can I Find a Good Language School? Will Harry Potter Die in the Seventh Book? What are Some Examples of 1920s Slang? What Should I Include in a Personal Letter? In Bookbinding, what are Gauffered Edges? What are Some American Tongue Twisters? What is the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency? How Can I Start My Own Literary Magazine? What is a Christian Science Reading Room? What are Some Different Teaching Methods? What Does It Mean to Mind your Ps and Qs? How Does a Character Become a Superhero? What Does "The Devil's In the Details" Mean? What Does "Sleeping with the Enemy" Mean? Where did the Term Broadcasting Come from? What is the Church Universal and Triumphant? What are Some Euphemisms for Being Crazy? What is the Mythical Cause of the Trojan War? What does it Mean to be Wet Behind the Ears? Do I Need to Go to Law School to be a Lawyer? What is the Comparative Method in Linguistics? Why Shouldn't I Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth? What was the Romantic Movement in Literature? What is the Difference Between That and Which? Can I Learn A New Language Completely Online? In Harry Potter, What is the Philosopher's Stone? What is Meant by "Carrying Coals to Newcastle?" What is the Difference Between Fact and Opinion? In Harry Potter, What are the Unforgivable Curses? What is the Difference Between Fame and Infamy? What Does it Mean to be Treated With Kid Gloves? How Can I Tell if a Book is Appropriate for My Child? What is the Most Commonly Used Letter in English? How Can I Become a Better Reader of Shakespeare? What are Some Different Philosophies on Education? How are Colons and Semicolons Used in Sentences? What is the Difference Between Miss, Mrs., and Ms.? What Does it mean to be Walking on Eggshells? What are Some Traditional Holiday Books for Children? Where Did the Saying "Happy as a Clam" Come From? Is the Pied Piper of Hamelin Based on an Actual Event? What is the Origin of the Term "Dressed To The Nines"? What are Some Good Ways to Improve My Vocabulary? How is Spanish Spoken Differently in Different Countries? What are Some Common Euphemisms for the Bathroom? What Are Style Guidelines, and Why Are They Important? What is the Difference Between a Pilgrimage and a Quest? What are the Origins of the Phrase "a Sight for Sore Eyes"? When Will Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Come Out? How can I Prepare for a Career in Early Childhood Education? What Are Some Magical Creatures in the Harry Potter Novels? What are the Origins of the Phrase "Let the Cat Out of the Bag"? Can a Member of the General Public Access Academic Libraries? What is the Difference Between Content Editing and Copy Editing? What Does it Mean to be Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis? What are the Origins of the Phrase "the Pot Calling the Kettle Black"? What Are the Origins of Some of the Names in the Harry Potter Novels? What are Logical Fallacies That Appeal to Emotion Rather Than Reason? What Does it Mean When Someone Says They are Going to Hit the Head? What is the Difference Between an Attorney, Lawyer, Barrister, and Esquire? What is the Difference Between a Possessive Pronoun and a Possessive Adjective? What are the Educational Requirements to Becoming a Lawyer in the US and Abroad?

Who is Zeus? What is ESL? What is Libel? Who is Cupid? What is Hindi? Who is Merlin? What is Slang? What is Waka? What is a Pun? What is Limbo? What is a Zine? What is Pidgin? What is FanLit? What is Arabic? What is a Joke? What is Jargon? What is a Selkie? What is an IEP? What is a Typo? Who is Gandalf? Who is Artemis? What is Syntax? What is an Afro? What is a Shiur? What is Bengali? Who is Oedipus? What is Judaica? What is Poldark? What is Persian? Who is Lancelot? Who is Tiny Tim? What is a Query? Who was Homer? What is Russian? What is a Riddle? Who is Iphigenia? What is Aramaic? What is an ISBN? What is Santeria? What is The Iliad? What is Fair Use? Who is Kokopelli? What is Animism? What is a Vulcan? What is a Dreidel? What is Chick Lit? What is a Rosary? What is a Barong? What is a Sonnet? What is a Debate? What is a Novella? What is a Gorgon? What is a Gerund? What is a Legend? What is a Proctor? What Is Hogwarts? What is Cynicism? What is the Torah? What is Elocution? What is Apostasy? What is a Sophist? What is the Force? What is Copyright? Who is Hades? What is a Prophet? What is a Portkey? What is Fanfiction? What is an Adverb? What is Bopomofo? What is Old Norse? What is Discourse? What is a Kenning? What is a Polyglot? What is a Pronoun? What is the Qur'an? What is an Inferius? Who is Baba Yaga? What is a Menorah? What is the Ka'aba? What is Filial Piety? What is Etymology? What is Chickasaw? What is a Pensieve? What is a Toponym? What is Glossolalia? What is a Tattletale? What is a Colophon? What is an Allegory? Who is Prometheus? What is Portuguese? Who is Santa Claus? Who is Miss Marple? What is Old English? Who is Willa Cather? Who was Odysseus? Who is Don Quixote? What is Punctuation? What is a Demonym? What are Archaisms? What is a Superhero? What is an Adjective? What is Bookbinding? What is a Meta-Joke? What is a Bookworm? What is an Epiphany? Who is Mary Russell? What is a Copywriter? What is a Consonant? What is Foo Bar Baz? What is a Line Editor? What is Legerdemain? What is a Snowclone? What is Frankenstein? What is Civic Society? What is an Animagus? What is Value Theory? What is a Palindrome? What is Slash Fiction? Who was Kunta Kinte? What is a Modal Verb? What is an Oxymoron? What is a Leprechaun? What is Perseveration? What is a Golden Age? What is Epistemology? What is Murphy's Law? What is a Copy Editor? What is a Blurbologist? What is a Pseudonym? What is a Spoonerism? What is Jurisprudence? Who is Lady Murasaki? What are Proofreaders? Do I need to Get a Life? What is a Mondegreen? What is an Ivory Tower? What is a Play-Novella? What Does Über Mean? What are Board Books? What is a Beta Reader? What is a Catbird Seat? What is a Linking Verb? What is a Euphemism? Who is Chinua Achebe? What is a Non-sequitur? What are Metrical Feet? Who is Scarlett O'Hara? What is a Ghost Writer? In Law, What is Pro Se? What is Personification? What is a Picture Book? What is the Fog of War? What are Hieroglyphics? What are Lexile Scores? Who is E.E. Cummings? What is Speed Reading? Should I Keep a Journal? Who is Michael Chabon? What is a Therianthrope? What is a Crash Course? What is Folk Etymology? Who is Prince Charming? What is a Poet Laureate? What is a Junior College? What is Dehumanization? What is a Lingua Franca? What is a Caste System? What are Pros and Cons? Who is Margaret Atwood? What is a Rule of Thumb? What is Cultural Industry? What are Urban Legends? What is a Reader's Copy? Who is David Copperfield? What is the Grail Legend? What is a Comma Splice? What is an On-Sale Date? What is a Hero's Journey? What is Hobson's Choice? What is the Booker Prize? What are Crocodile Tears? What is the Gordian Knot? What is First Communion? What is Social Promotion? In Law, What is Pro Bono? What is Technical Writing? In Law, What is a Pro Per? Was Hamlet Really Crazy? What is Vanity Publishing? What is a Functional Shift? What is the Eleventh Hour? What is a Rhodes Scholar? What is a Defense Lawyer? What is a Double Negative? What are Bathroom Books? What is Social Intelligence? Who is Pippi Longstocking? What is a Museum Curator? What is an Ad Hom Attack? What is Child-Led Learning? What is a Compound Word? What do Archaeologists do? Who are Beren and Luthien? How Can I Avoid Plagiarism? What is the Newbery Medal? What is Natural Law Theory? What Does Hallelujah Mean? What is a Thesis Statement? Who Is Christopher Marlowe? What is a Literary Magazine? What are Bathroom Readers? What is the Caldecott Medal? What is a Bachelor's Degree? What is Academic Probation? What are Mythical Creatures? How Can I Start a Book Club? What is Critical Race Theory? What are Poison Pen Letters? What is a Knock-Knock Joke? What are Teacher Assistants? What is a Special Prosecutor? What is "The Problem of Evil"? What is a Persona Non Grata? What Does Great Scott Mean? What is Continuing Education? What does Well-Heeled Mean? What is a Community College? What is Phonemic Awareness? What is Constructive Criticism? What is a Commonplace Book? How can I Find a Good Lawyer? What is a Dog and Pony Show? What is Preaching to the Choir? What is Phatic Communication? What is Automatic Lip Reading? In Greek Myth, Who is Achilles? What is a Straw Man Argument? What is a Newspaper of Record? What are the Berber Languages? What is "The Yellow Wallpaper"? How Can I Avoid using Profanity? In Writing, What is an Argument? What are Rose-Colored Glasses? How are Public Libraries Funded? What Does it Mean to be AWOL? What Does it Mean to Cut a Rug? Who are Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? What Does "Going Postal" Mean? What is an Indemnity Agreement? What are the Birds and the Bees? What is the Order of the Phoenix? What Does It Mean to Pontificate? What is a Distribution Agreement? How Often Should my Child Read? What does Apple Polishing Mean? How can I Research my Ancestry? How Can My Child Contact Santa? What is the Theosophical Society? What is Jungian Literary Criticism? How can I Become a Better Writer? What Does it Mean to Have a Cow? How Can I Improve My Handwriting? What is the Philosophy of Science? What is Transcendental Meditation? What Can I Do With My Old Books? What is a Million Dollar Vocabulary? How can I Overcome Writer's Block? What are Some Good Study Habits? What does Across the Board Mean? What are the Cockles of Your Heart? What Should be in Meeting Minutes? How Can I Improve my Editing Skills? What is the Dewey Decimal System? What Does it Mean to Split the Baby? What does Jumping the Couch Mean? What are Greengrocers' Apostrophes? When Should My Child Learn Cursive? What is a Creative Commons License? How Can I Correctly Use Apostrophes? In Harry Potter, What is a Death Eater? What is a Damascus Road Conversion? What is a Divide and Conquer Strategy? How Can I Become a Better Storyteller? What does "Let Them Eat Cake" Mean? What are the Different Grades of Braille? How Can I Write a More Effective Paper? In Greek Mythology, who was Sisyphus? How can I get Better at Public Speaking? What Does it Mean to Have Feet of Clay? What is the History of the Latin Alphabet? What are the North Germanic Languages? What Does it Mean to Take No Prisoners? What are the Languages of Biblical Times? What is Native American Animal Medicine? What is the Difference Between Its and It's? What are the Three Words that End in -gry? Why is a Pirate Flag Called a "Jolly Roger"? What are the Top Selling Books of All Time? What is the Best Way to Learn a Language? What are Some Commonly Misused Words? When should I Stop Reading to My Children? What is the Difference Between i.e. and e.g.? How can I Find out About my Family History? Why Do People Like to Watch Scary Movies? What Does It Mean to Open a Can of Worms? What are Some Good Children's Book Series? In Philosophy, What Does Tabula Rasa Mean? What is an Accelerated Reader (AR) Program? What are the Different Types of Pop-Up Books? In Logic, what are Sound and Valid Arguments? What Does Blood is Thicker Than Water Mean? What Are the Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing? What Should I Know About Pride and Prejudice? What was the Decadent Movement in Literature? Is it Ethical for Academics to use Ghost Writers? Which are the Most Difficult Languages to Learn? What is the Difference Between Who and Whom? What is the Difference Between Affect and Effect? What is the Difference Between To, Two, and Too? What Do References to Prunes and Prisms Mean? What is the Origin of the Term "Things Fall Apart"? What are Logical Fallacies of Insufficient Evidence? What is Media Bias and Where Does it Come From? What are the Different Types of Translation Services? How Can I Help My Child Improve Their Penmanship? What is the Southern Gothic Movement in Literature? What Does it Mean to Cut Your Teeth on Something? What is the Difference Between a Team and a Group? What are Some Potions From the Harry Potter Novels? What Should I Consider When Choosing Baby Names? What are Some Considerations for Choosing a College? What is the Difference Between a Metaphor and Simile? What are the Steps to Get in the National Spelling Bee? What are Some Good Books to Read After Harry Potter? What is the Difference Between Literally and Figuratively? Why Do People Say the Moon is Made of Green Cheese? What is the Difference Between There, Their, and They're? Should I Encourage My Children to Believe in Santa Claus? Why does British Spelling Keep the U in Words like Colour? What are the Origins of the Phrase "Mind Your P's and Q's"? What does Throwing the Baby out with the Bath Water Mean? Am I Cheating if I Look Up the Answers to a Crossword Puzzle? What do People Mean When They Refer to an 800 Pound Gorilla? What are the Different Accents and Dialects in American English? What is the Release Date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? What are Some of the Most Commonly Misspelled Words in English? What Does "A Bird in the Hand is Better than Two in the Bush" Mean? What are Logical Fallacies That Incorporate Cause-And-Effect Mistakes? What is the Difference Between the New and Old Testaments of the Bible? What is the Difference Between Dumb Quotes and Smart (or Curly) Quotes? What Kinds of Transportation are Used by Wizards in the Harry Potter Novels? What are Some Occasions When Written Letters are More Appropriate Than Email?