Merriam-Webster Sees Elon Musk's Twitter Blue, Taunts With Red

Dictionary cheekily discontinues its M-W Red within hours
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 29, 2023 10:55 AM CDT
Merriam-Webster Taunts Musk's Twitter Blue
The Twitter icon is displayed on a mobile phone in Philadelphia on April 26, 2017.   (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Merriam-Webster likes to get cheeky every once in a while, and Elon Musk and his Twitter Blue are the latest target. As Insider reports, the dictionary powerhouse used Musk's own forum to mock Twitter Blue, in a tweet that's currently clocking north of 4 million: "People who subscribe to Merriam-Webster Red™ will get exclusive access to the real definitions." For the Blue-uninitiated, Twitter permits users to pay $8 a month for a blue check mark that gives them search priority, as well as allows them to see fewer ads, appear in the "For You" tab, and edit tweets.

M-W jokingly backed off the mocking tweet within a couple of hours, saying that "It has been brought to our attention that we've been giving everyone the real definitions since 1828. Merriam-Webster Red™ has been discontinued." Musk, never one to lie down, fired back with this: "Forgot to mention that accounts you follow directly will also be in For You, since you have explicitly asked for them." That tweet has been viewed currently more than 19 million times. (More Twitter stories.)

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