Author: Flocabulary Team

Do you fear the number 13? If you've looked at your calendar today you've noticed that today is the 13th. Friday the 13th. Are you cowering under your comforter? If you're one of the millions of people that fear this day, you have triskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. The word comes from Greek roots; tris meaning "3", kai meaning "and", deka meaning "10" and phobia meaning "fear" or "morbid fear." Triskaidekaphobia became so common that many architects and city planners let it affect their work. Some cities don't have a 13th Street or 13th Avenue. Airports will skip the 13th gate. Hospitals and hotels often won't…

Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week! When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to presidential visits, statement-making representatives, cheating scandals, deep sea dives, box office hits and more. Each week, we’ll highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once students beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense. THIS WEEK impoverished (adjective) -- reduced to poverty; poverty-stricken Why it matters: President Obama, on an official visit to…

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition to the New World that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire. Conquistadors were soldiers, explorers and adventurers at the service of the Spanish or Portuguese Empires. They sailed around the world conquering territories for their rulers, colonizing the New World and opening trade routes. Learn more about conquistadors in Flocabulary's song "Glory & Gold." Cortés was born to a family of lesser nobility. Before bringing down the Aztec Empire he made a name for himself in Cuba, where he received an encomienda (a system employed…

Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week! When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to claims of self-defense, high stock prices, old mysteries, sports trades and more. Each week, we’ll highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once students beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense. THIS WEEK self-defense -- a countermeasure to an assault on one's self, one's property or the well-being of another from…