Wordlore

Tushar Kanaujia

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About this app

Where does "salary" come from? (Salt. Roman soldiers were paid in salt money.) Why do half the world say "tea" and the other half "chai"? (Trade routes.)

Wordlore is 23andMe for words. Search any word and get its DNA report: an animated timeline of its journey through languages and centuries, a living map of how it crossed the world, the roots it shares with surprising cousins, and how the same root survives in languages spoken today.

- Two fresh words every day - a 30-second daily ritual
- Animated story mode: watch a word transform, era by era
- Migration maps: see "sugar" travel from Sanskrit to your kitchen
- A daily puzzle: guess where today's word began
- Museum-style collections: Gods & Monsters, Words that crossed the world, Meaning U-turns
- Hear every word pronounced
- No ads, no guilt streaks, no dark patterns - ever

Every etymology is curated for accuracy, with new words added continuously. Etymology data adapted in part from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

What’s new

Welcome to Wordlore — the story of every word.

Discover two new words every day and trace each one's journey across languages and centuries. Explore animated timelines, migration maps, living-language cousins, and a daily puzzle.