The Best Articles in Language
The most useful articles and videos in Language from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Language Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Language by Refind users in 2023.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
Why does this nonsense phrase appear in so many old newspapers?
Check out my PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/dimestoreadventuresHUGE thank you to my PATREON SUPER SUPPORTERS:BIG SUMCarson WWesley SnipesChristopher KuklaK...
Future of Language w/Casper Grathwohl
EPISODE 86: Are you a language geek? This week's guest shares a fascinating perspective- from the rise of English as the world's 'lingua franca', to 'endange...
Why we say “OK”
“OK” is thought to be the most widely recognized word on the planet. We use it to communicate with each other, as well as our technology. But, it actually started out as a language fad in the 1830’s.…
Lessons from Auschwitz: The power of our words
Classical music mastermind Benjamin Zander concluded his 2008 TED Talk by recounting the heartrending story of an Auschwitz survivor and her brother. This short animated piece highlights that story,…
How to ...?
How To Know If You're An Interrupter Or A 'Cooperative Overlapper'
This conversational habit seems like interrupting but it's actually not.
How to Win at Wordle (Without Cheating)
Solve these puzzle questions to level up your Wordle game.
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Language on Refind.
The Low Down on the Greatest Dictionary Collection in the World
From "unabridged" to "slanguage," Madeline Kripke's library is a logophile's heaven (or hell).
Scrabble’s New Official Word List Contains Dozens of Stunning Additions. Elite Players Are Mortified.
The slurs are just the beginning.
Language models can use steganography to hide their reasoning, study finds
Large language models (LLMs) can utilize 'encoded reasoning,' a form of steganography, to subtly embed reasoning steps within their responses, enhancing performance but potentially reducing…
You Had Me At Meow: On the Hidden Language of Cats
“That one in there—he just sits and hisses.” The school caretaker pointed to a hole underneath the old building. I crouched down, peered in, and said, “Hello there,” to the dirty, scrawny little ca…
Translation
How the right words can have the wrong meanings, and the best translations lead us to an understanding that's way deeper than language.
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Language—all under 10 minutes.
How to Exclaim!
Noisy. Hysterical. Brash. The textual version of junk food. The selfie of grammar. The exclamation point attracts enormous amounts of flak...
How language and social status change the developing brain
Brain development is a highly complex process that is strongly influenced by the environment in which a child is raised, with the earliest years of life being especially important for the emergence of…
«Research shows that young children who are exposed to high quality language and more child-directed speech will have larger vocabularies and better language processing skills later on.»
Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans
Researchers uncover striking parallels in the ways that humans and machine learning models acquire language skills.
The Art of Compression
The very short story can conjure a fiction out of almost nothing.
Language and language acquisition: How the brain processes German and Arabic
Language develops in different areas of the brain. Researchers have been able to show that the way these are linked varies according to the respective native language – knowledge that could prove…
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Language.
Baroque, Purple, and Beautiful: In Praise of the Long, Complicated Sentence
The meter-tall stone that has come to be called the Mesha Stele, its smooth, black basalt carved some sixteen centuries before it was unearthed from the packed, red sand of Dhiban, Jordan in 1868, …
Why we can dream in more than one language
Sleep has a more powerful role in language-learning than was previously thought. What does this reveal about our night-time brain?
Past Lives of the Paragraph
Making a new paragraph is as easy as drawing a thin line in the margin.
«I propose that we treat the “rules” of Bain and company, particularly those designed to promote coherence, like these ruled lines—as elected parameters from which we may deviate as needed.»
J.R.R. Tolkien on Fairy Tales, Language, the Psychology of Fantasy, and Why There’s No Such Thing as…
“Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else (make something new), may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds.”
Beamer, Dressman, Bodybag
On the unexpected joys of Denglisch, Berlinglish & global Englisch. « My own language, made camp. »
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Language, including:

Grammar Girl is also @grammargirl@zirk.us
Mignon Fogarty. Podcaster. Language lover. NYT bestselling author. Quick & Dirty Tips founder. @grammargirl@zirk.us
Aeon+Psyche
Aeon is a magazine of ideas and culture. Psyche is our sister magazine focused on the human condition. Visit http://aeon.co and http://psyche.co for more.
Literary Hub
A daily literary website highlighting the best in contemporary fiction, nonfiction, and criticism.
Nautilus Magazine
Cutting-edge science, unraveled in award-winning journalism by the very brightest living thinkers. Click the link to subscribe to the newsletter.
The Pudding
The Pudding is a digital publication that explains ideas debated in culture with visual essays. Email: sup@pudding.cool Support: http://patreon.com/thepudding
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Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
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The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
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How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Who are the thought leaders in Language?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Language, including Grammar Girl is also @grammargirl@zirk.us, Aeon+Psyche, Literary Hub, Nautilus Magazine, The Pudding.
Missing a thought leader? Submit them here
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