We all know someone who repeats a certain word frequently in conversations. Maybe it's "like," or "essentially" or "literally." That likely sounds familiar, and it can be a bit distracting—especially ...

It’s the literal truth, we say, as if that “literal” conveyed an extra measure of authority. Actually, literal meanings are frequently wrong, and often confusing. A recent example is the “naked wife” ...

My editor here in the WGBH Newsroom, Aaron Schachter, is a little bit of a curmudgeon. And in recent weeks he's had a linguistic bee in his bonnet that he will not let go. "I am literally going crazy, ...