School, college and other closings for Monday

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Merriam-Webster has a message for the Trump administration: There is no such thing as an "alternative fact." There are facts, and then there are falsehoods.

That memo was at least implied this week when the dictionary publisher 

 the definition of a fact just hours after Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway appeared on Meet The Press and referred to statements by White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the inaugural crowd size as "alternative facts."

https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/823221915171061760

Later, Merriam-Webster threw another dig at Conway by tweeting an alternative definition of the word "fact."

https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/824026625373306884

The idea for those tweets came from the dictionary's Trend Watch feature, Lauren Naturale, social media manager at Merriam-Webster, told 

. When people are looking up a word at a higher rate than usual as related to an event, Merriam-Webster shares that trend and adds context on the word's meaning and how it was used.

"Four people were involved in writing and editing the 'fact' article, and none of us felt like we shouldn't report the story — choosing not to report that trend would have been much more political than continuing as we always have," Naturale told Vox. "If you don't believe that words matter, why are you consulting a dictionary?"

On Monday, Merriam-Webster subtly scolded the Trump team again, this time in response to a 

 for the word "claque." The searches were likely in response to reports that the people who cheered Trump during his visit to CIA headquarters were not actually agency staffers but 

https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/823779912725237761

These types of tweets are nothing new for Merriam-Webster. Throughout the presidential campaign, Merriam-Webster developed its funny style of delicately trolling Trump on social media.

When Trump accused China of stealing a U.S. drone back in December, calling the act "unpresidented," Merriam-Webster's Twitter account mocked the president-elect for misspelling "unprecedented" and making up a new term. Trump corrected himself and deleted the tweet, but by then Merriam-Webster had already tweeted "Huh" as its word of the day.

https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/810117698558562304

During the presidential debates, Merriam-Webster also threw some shade at Trump's unique rhetoric.

After Trump's comments referring to "bad hombres," the dictionary's site 

 for the word "ombre" but was quick to point out the difference between the two words. "Hombre" is the Spanish word for "man," while "ombre" refers to "having shades or colors that fade into each other."

https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/788915032658702337

https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/788914054115057664

 on a major perplexing question of the campaign: Did Trump say "bigly" or "big league"? Merriam-Webster highlighted that "bigly" is in fact a real word, but concluded that Trump was using "big league" as an adverb, which is uncommon.

https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/788915239618224130

Despite all of this mocking, Naturale clarifies that Merriam-Webster's social media strategy goes beyond that. She says it reflects Merriam-Webster's quirky identity while furthering its goal of sharing knowledge as experts on language.

On Sunday — one day after the Women's March drew millions of people worldwide — Merriam-Webster tweeted the definition of "vanguard" with a GIF of Sylvia Rivera, a transgender activist.

https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/823379809262796800

"Smart people are curious about the world, and smart people are curious about the other people who live in that world," Naturale told Vox. "Our Twitter reflects that attitude."

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Samantha Raphelson

Author

Throughout the presidential campaign, the linguistic institution developed its funny style of delicately poking at Donald Trump and his associates on Twitter.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has been trolling Trump on Twitter for months

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox