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

Planet Word Museum

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Washington D.C., DC
Planet Word Museum

Planet Word is an interactive museum of words and language in downtown Washington, D.C.
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06/02/2026

BTS took home Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards last week, and their song “SWIM” was named Song of the Summer — a triumphant return after a nearly four-year hiatus while members completed mandatory military service.

From verse to chorus, “SWIM” uses songwriting techniques like contrast, slant rhyme, assonance, and echo to make lyrics about letting go feel as effortless as the song sounds.

06/01/2026

Last Thursday, 14-year-old Shrey Parikh became the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion — sealing his win by correctly spelling “bromocriptine” in a dramatic spell-off where he rattled off a record-breaking 32 of 35 words in 90 seconds, including obscure words like “pohutukawa,” “cywyddau,” and “natchitoches.”

So what exactly is bromocriptine? The name combines “bromo-,” for the element bromine, and “(ergo)cryptine,” for an alkaloid derived from ergot, a type of fungus. In other words, the name tells you exactly what the molecule is — if you happen to be a chemist.

Congrats, Shrey! 🐝

05/30/2026

Join us at Planet Word for a full lineup of June programming — find the calendar and tickets at planetwordmuseum.org/events.

🗣 Language & Liberty: The Power and Privilege of Women’s Public Speech | June 2, 6–8 p.m. Acclaimed historian Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust traces women’s voices in American history from the Declaration of Independence to today.

🧩 Wordplay Wednesday | June 3, 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.

🎵️ Ella Jenkins: The First Lady of Children’s Music Sing-Along | June 6, 12–1 p.m. An interactive family sing-along celebrating the legacy of children’s music pioneer Ella Jenkins led by Grammy-nominated percussionist and music educator Dante’ Pope.

📚️ Sing-Along and Book Talk Celebrating Ella Jenkins, the First Lady of Children’s Music | June 6, 4:30–6 p.m. Explore Ella Jenkins’s groundbreaking influence on children’s music with Dante’ Pope, GWU Professor Gayle Wald, and international recording artist and teaching artist Debórah Bond.

📖 Sunday Storytime — June 14, 10–11 a.m. Kids and their grownups join children’s librarians from DC Public Library for songs, read-alouds, and activities.

🪘️ 4th Annual Juneteenth Literary Jubilee & Black Author Book Fest — June 20, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. Kick off your summer with a celebration of Black authors, culture, community, and the power of words and language.

05/29/2026

With rhythm, movement, and the joy of call-and-response, the legendary Ella Jenkins mastered the art of using music to spark language acquisition and build community.

On Saturday, June 6, visit Planet Word for a family-friendly sing-along led by Dante’ Pope, followed by an evening book talk exploring Jenkins’s extraordinary legacy in children’s education and the Civil Rights movement.

Get tickets: https://planetwordmuseum.org/events/sing-along-and-book-talk-celebrating-ella-jenkins-the-first-lady-of-childrens-music/

05/24/2026

Naomi Shihab Nye has spent her career finding poetry in the quiet, ordinary moments of human connection. “Supple Cord” is one of her most tender poems — a childhood memory of sharing a room with her brother, the two of them connected by a piece of cord in the dark.

What’s a small ritual you shared with a sibling growing up?

Read the full poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49444/supple-cord

05/22/2026

Today is Sherlock Holmes Day, observed each year in honor of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday. There’s no better place to celebrate than Planet Word’s Lexicon Lane, where you can step into the role of the sharp-witted detective and solve a wordy mystery.

Don’t delay — reserve your puzzle case today at www.planetwordmuseum.org/lexicon-lane/. The game is afoot!

📷 Duhon Photography, Scott Suchman

05/21/2026

For less than the price of an iced coffee, you get the ultimate happy hour game night.

Wordplay Wednesday is back on June 3, 5–8 p.m. — with after-hours museum access, karaoke, word games, puzzles, complimentary treats, and refreshments from Immigrant Food.

Get tickets: https://planetwordmuseum.org/events/wordplay-wednesday-20/

05/20/2026

Happy D.C. Natives Day! Enjoy the sounds, tastes, sights, and language of the city with quintessential D.C. words shared by visitors in our Words Matter gallery, like “jhi,” “Go-Go,” “mumbo,” and “metro.” And to all the D.C. natives out there — what words sound like home to you?

05/19/2026

Happy birthday, Lorraine Hansberry! Born on this day in 1930, Hansberry felt compelled to write about the racism and sexism she witnessed growing up in Chicago. The violent backlash her family experienced after moving into a segregated neighborhood inspired her to write A Raisin in the Sun at age 27. In 1959, became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway.

Witness the lasting power of Hansberry’s words in Planet Word’s Library, where A Raisin in the Sun comes to life on our magical Story Table.

05/18/2026

On this day in 1897, Bram Stoker published his Gothic horror novel Dracula. The haunting tale of Count Dracula’s reign of terror in a seaside English town created the modern archetype for the vampire — but Stoker didn’t invent the concept of the blood-sucking undead or the word commonly used to describe them.

For his main character, Stoker drew upon centuries of folklore about mythical creatures that fed on human prey. Accounts of a vampiric entity date back centuries, predating the word itself. “Vampire” entered the English language as “vampyre” in the 1730s, tracing back to the Hungarian word “vampir” and, before that, likely a Slavic word such as the Serbo-Croatian “vàmpīr.”

The word reached England by way of Eastern Europe, which in 1732 was gripped with vampire hysteria. In a village in Hungary, the London Journal reported, “certain dead Bodies (call’d there Vampyres) had kill’d several Persons by sucking out all their Blood.”

Vampires are ancient, but thanks to Stoker, they’re also eternal — much like the creatures themselves. From Twilight’s Edward Cullen to Sesame Street’s The Count, Count Dracula and his ilk are here to stay.

Address

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

Website

http://planetwordmuseum.org/

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