Merriam-Webster's planned digital overhaul of its unabridged dictionary was halted after declining web traffic and financial pressures led to layoffs and project abandonment.
Word choice and framing shape thoughts, emotions, behavior, perceived competence, safety, and stress regulation; dictionaries help locate precise, evolving vocabulary.
Defining what counts as a word is surprisingly complex, with dictionaries and specialists offering conflicting, technically messy, and sometimes inadequate definitions.
