The Word of the Week comes from the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens or encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China’s online ...

If you get a famous person to reply back using the word of the week, you get 25 bonus points. So far, “The Karate Kid,” Ralph Macchio, and Rangers player Rick Nash have used the Word of the Week.

Tier-two words are the sweet spot for common-core instruction—they’re academic but come up in a variety of contexts. They have “wide applicability,” the standards say, and need to be ...