Australian Word Map is a small treasure on offer at the Macquarie Dictionary website. It was set up by the ABC and Macquarie Dictionary as an interactive site to collect and record words and expressions from all over Australia. Thousands of people contributed,
When we sent the Eighth Edition of the Macquarie off to the printer, on 20 March 2020, it was our third day of working from home…
The new edition of the Macquarie Dictionary has been introduced by one of our very favourite authors. Markus Zusak is an internationally bestselling…
Almost exactly 42 years after its first edition, this September sees the publication of the ninth edition of the Macquarie Dictionary…
If you haven’t submitted a new word you’ve heard to us at Macquarie Dictionary, now is your chance to do so. Not only could you have the kudos of suggesting a potential word, but it might even end up on one of these articles. We take these words from you and collate them to consider … Read more
Welcome to the inaugural new words blog of 2023! Have you heard of leet (or leetspeak)? It’s a form of communication used online, invented by the users of bulletin board systems 40 years ago, in which words are respelt by replacing certain letters with numbers or other symbols that resemble them. It’s hypothesised to have been … Read more
This week’s word of the week is the Dish. No, we aren’t prepping for dinner, we are journeying out to the New South Wales Central West to visit the famous Parkes radio telescope. Opened in 1961, the Dish is a powerful radio telescope with a subsidiary telescope. The Dish is best known for the role … Read more
This week we are wearing shoes and socks because the word of the week is toe-biter, also known as the giant water bug. The toe-biter is a large freshwater insect that can grow up to seven centimetres long. They can breathe underwater using a posterior tube and are found along the eastern and northern coasts … Read more
If you’re travelling in the waters of Northern Australia make sure you avoid the snapping handbags, that is, the crocodiles. Crocodiles come in many shapes and sizes
This week’s word of the week will cost you around $150 an hour. A dunny diver is a plumber, those stalwart tradies who install and repair piping, fixtures, appliances, and appurtenances in connection with the water supply and drainage systems. Turd strangler is a more colourful name for a plumber. You laugh but from ancient Roman baths to your … Read more
