The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Ugly

Time: 2:23
Kory Stamper ’96 is an associate editor at Merriam-Webster and the author of Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. As a result of her “Ask the Editor” videos and her popular blog Harmless Drudgery, The New York Times has deemed her “very much part of the vanguard of word-nerd celebrities.” On a recent visit to Smith, she took some time to share her thoughts on some of her favorite—and not-so-favorite—words and definitions.