The symbol '#' has many names: hash, pound, number sign, octothorpe — 'octothorpe' was coined as a joke by a Bell Labs engineer.
Fact #4921
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There are no true synonyms — words with similar meanings always differ in connotation or register.
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English has the largest vocabulary of any language — the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 600,000 words.
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The world's shortest alphabet, Rotokas, has only 12 letters.
Fact #6032 · Language
There are no true synonyms — words with similar meanings always differ in connotation, register, or use.
Fact #5631 · Language
The word 'cereal' comes from Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and harvest.
Fact #3788 · Language
The oldest written language is Sumerian, dating to around 3200 BCE.
Fact #3436 · Language
The word 'serendipity' was coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole — from an old name for Sri Lanka.
Fact #8989 · Language
The word 'philosophy' is Greek for 'love of wisdom' — coined around the 6th century BC.
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