Words from French

The Impact of French on English: Language of the Ruling Classes The main period for the introduction of French words into English was after the Norman Conquest of 1066. For the next 300 or so years, the language of the royal court, and therefore of authority, was Norman,… Read More

Words from Arabic

The Arabic influence on the English of science, mathematics and cuisine The Muslim conquest and settlement of al-Andalus came when Europe was in the Dark Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire when much of the knowledge of the ancient Roman and Greek worlds… Read More

Spelling Rules

Twelve Top Spelling Tips Here is our list of the spelling tips we think you will find most useful. They provide an explanation of the English language’s key spelling rules (and their exceptions) and if you can bear them in mind you should be able to improve your spelling. Read More

Commonly Confused Words

When two words are confused for one another the results can sometimes be comical, for example when affluent is confused with effluent or desert with dessert. On other occasions mix-ups between commonly confused words can result in a situation that isn’t so funny, for example… Read More

Words from Hindi

Hindi is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, which means that it is a distant relative of English. Sometimes people in India speak a hybrid tongue that contains words from Hindi and from English. This is known as Hinglish. India and Britain down the years… Read More

Words from Latin

Britain was a province of Rome for almost 400 years but when the Western Empire collapsed Germanic invaders brought to these islands a language that eventually became English. Latin made a comeback, however. The British Isles converted to Christianity during the Dark Ages and Latin was the… Read More

Words from Sanskrit

Sanskrit: an ancient but still living language Sanskrit, unlike Latin, is still spoken to this day (although not by a huge number of people) but efforts are being made to increase its use as a spoken tongue. Many schools and universities teach Sanskrit, and anyone wanting to immerse… Read More

Welcome to CollinsDictionary.com

A huge welcome, bienvenue, bienvenida and Willkommen to our 501,458 (and counting!) pages of words, their definitions and translations which are now settling in here at www.collinsdictionary.com. They’re so excited to be in their new home that they can’t stop showing off and doing all sorts… Read More

French Expressions : Cats, Cockroaches and Buttered Spinach

Expressions. Idioms. Aphorisms. Whatever you call them, they add spice to any conversation. Tossing a few French idioms into your tête-à-tête adds that je ne sais quoi that makes learning a new language so much fun. Use French expressions correctly and you build rapport with your French-speaking friends. You… Read More