Planet Word Museum

Planet Word Museum Planet Word is an interactive museum of words and language in downtown Washington, D.C.

09/02/2026

On September 2, 2014, Cece Bell published El Deafo, a colorful, empowering graphic novel about the author’s experience with hearing loss. In it, young Cece copes by imagining herself as a superhero, El Deafo. Place the book on Planet Word’s magical Story Table and watch the characters spring to life, complete with narration by Cece Bell herself.

September at Planet Word is packed with programs that will inspire, entertain, and spark conversation! Find the calendar...
09/01/2026

September at Planet Word is packed with programs that will inspire, entertain, and spark conversation! Find the calendar and tickets at planetwordmuseum.org/events.

🍎 Wordplay Wednesday: Back to School Edition | September 2, 5–8 p.m.
The ultimate happy hour and game night — crafts, word games and puzzles, a pop-up bar from Immigrant Food, and more. Bonus for educators: enjoy access to a special “Teacher’s Lounge”!

📚 Eyes on Reading: When Researchers and Schools Work Together | September 12, 10–11:30 a.m.
Join elementary school principal Carmen Conner and researcher Dr. Nicole Patton-Terry to discover what it takes to bring the science of reading into schools.

📖 Sunday Storytime | September 13, 10–11 a.m.
Kids and their grownups join children’s librarians from DC Public Library for songs, read-alouds, and activities.

🏴‍☠️ Talk Like a Pirate Day | September 19
Grab your mateys and join us for the launch of new, novice-level mystery cases in Lexicon Lane suitable for puzzlers ages 8 and up.

🖋️ The Reading Lounge: Pretty Little Bookshelf with Victoria Christopher Murray & Ashton Lattimore | September 20, 2–4 p.m.
Unplug and unwind with an afternoon of reading and bookish activities, featuring a journey through historical fiction with valuable insight and even better company.

💬 Between the Lines with Jason Reynolds and Adedayo “Dayo” Kosoko | September 27, 4–6 p.m.
Jason Reynolds joins Adedayo Kosoko for a candid conversation about visual arts, storytelling, and community building.

Be the first to know about upcoming events — sign up for our newsletter at planetwordmuseum.org/newsletter-signup!

Dolly Parton was truly one of a kind, so it makes perfect sense that she coined a new word to describe herself and her c...
08/31/2026

Dolly Parton was truly one of a kind, so it makes perfect sense that she coined a new word to describe herself and her career: “songteller.”

A riff on “storyteller,” Parton first introduced “songteller” as the title of her memoir, published in 2020. “I really think of myself as a songteller, because I write songs, but I tell stories,” Parton explained in an interview.

You won’t find “songteller” in the dictionary and can’t play it in Scrabble — but there is one notable exception. In the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, Parton partnered with the company behind Words With Friends — the crossword app that kept people connected through quarantine — to add “songteller” to its dictionary.

If you’re looking for a place to pay tribute to and celebrate the songteller herself, stop by Planet Word and belt out “Jolene” in our karaoke room. You can revel in the songwriting genius that made her worthy of a word used for no one else.

Happy birthday, Mary Shelley! Born on August 30, 1797, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was, in the words of fellow English p...
08/30/2026

Happy birthday, Mary Shelley! Born on August 30, 1797, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was, in the words of fellow English poet Leigh Hunt, “fourfam’d, — for her parents, her lord, / And the poor lone impossible monster abhorr’d.” These “four fames” were her mother, radical feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft; her father, writer and philosopher William Godwin; her husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; and the monster she conjured with her words, Frankenstein.

But Shelley was so much more than the sum of her relations. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, was just one of several novels she published — she was also a travel writer, critic, literary historian, editor, and champion of her husband’s work, with a talent for verse all her own.

Read one of her poems: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50261/stanzas-oh-come-to-me-in-dreams-my-love

Can't get enough Gothic literature? Join us for a special Goth(ic Lit) Night edition of Wordplay Wednesday on October 7, 5–8 p.m.! Tickets will become available soon. 🦇

Happy birthday, Michael Jackson! Born on August 29, 1958, the King of Pop’s influence on music and culture is impossible...
08/29/2026

Happy birthday, Michael Jackson! Born on August 29, 1958, the King of Pop’s influence on music and culture is impossible to overstate. Just this past May, “Billie Jean” rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart more than 43 years after its release, fueled by renewed interest from the biopic Michael — proof that a great song never really goes out of style.

On August 28, 1963, thousands of people flooded the National Mall for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Thos...
08/28/2026

On August 28, 1963, thousands of people flooded the National Mall for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Those present witnessed firsthand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s stirring “I Have a Dream” speech, one of the most celebrated speeches of all time. Featuring techniques like metaphor, repetition, and quotation to great effect, the speech is memorable for not only its powerful message, but the masterful oratory of Dr. King. You can read the full speech here: https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety

What does it take to bring the science of reading into schools? Join Planet Word Journalist-in-Residence, Emily Hanford,...
08/27/2026

What does it take to bring the science of reading into schools?

Join Planet Word Journalist-in-Residence, Emily Hanford, on September 12 for a conversation with elementary school principal Carmen Conner and literacy researcher Dr. Nicole Patton-Terry. Together, they’ll explore what researchers and educators can learn from one another, as they did. Learn why lasting change depends on trust and collaboration, and what lessons their partnership holds for schools and communities everywhere.

Get tickets: https://planetwordmuseum.org/events/eyes-on-reading-when-researchers-and-schools-work-together/

It’s Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the certification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote....
08/26/2026

It’s Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the certification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. The writers of the Constitution and Bill of Rights used words like “people” and “citizens” rather than “men” — but women were nonetheless implicitly excluded from the rights and protections granted to men. That exclusion became explicit in 1868, when the 14th Amendment introduced the Constitution’s first reference to “male citizens.” Fifty-two years later, four small words in the 19th Amendment — “on account of sex” — marked a critical first step toward women’s equality under the Constitution.

Happy publication day to Meg Medina’s Mango, Abuela y Yo! On August 25, 2015, this beloved picture book about family, la...
08/25/2026

Happy publication day to Meg Medina’s Mango, Abuela y Yo! On August 25, 2015, this beloved picture book about family, language, and connection across generations found its way into readers’ hands — and today, it’s one of five Spanish-language books that come to life in Planet Word’s magical Library.

In Medina’s own words: “La biblioteca de la Familia Schwarzman es como ninguna otra biblioteca. Aquí el libro no es solo algo para leer, pero sino algo dinámico.”

Next time you're at the museum, come see the magic for yourself. ¡Disfruta!

08/24/2026

Here’s a fun National Waffle Day fact: “waffle” (the verb) and “waffle” (the food) aren’t etymologically related!

The grid-shaped batter cake — delicious whether topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit or paired with syrup and fried chicken — entered English in the mid-1700s from Dutch “wafel.” That word traces back to Proto-Germanic *wabila, meaning “web” or “honeycomb,” a nod to the treat’s shape, and it is related to the English words “wafer” (particularly the wafers taken during Communion) and “weave.”

The verb, meanwhile, has a stranger backstory. Both its American English sense (“fail to make up one’s mind”) and its British English sense (“speak or write at length without saying anything important”) trace back to a 1600s frequentative form (or repeated act) of dialectal “waff,” meaning to yelp or bark like a puppy (similar to “woof”). From there, “waffle” came to mean “talk foolishly” (c. 1700), then it evolved into “fluctuate, waver, equivocate” (1803) — originally a Scottish and northern English regional usage before spreading more broadly.

So next time you’re waffling over whether to eat a waffle, know that language, too, is having an identity crisis. 🧇

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925 13th Street NW
Washington D.C., DC
20005

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm
Sunday 10am - 6pm

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