My favorite ... DICTIONARY.

The only dictionary, really. M DUBS! (m-w.com)

So, do you ever find yourself wondering, "is xxxx one word or two? Or does it take a hyphen? Or is this a word at all?"

[The newsroom finds itself wondering this every day. No exagg. And I'm the one who gets asked. A few people will fumble around with Google for a sec, realize they don't know where to look for the answer and then give up. "Michelle! Is letdown one word or two?"]

And the follow-up question usually goes: "Are you using it as a verb or as a noun?"

This matters.

And then I realize not everyone with whom I work knows the difference between a verb and a noun. And THAT'S an issue for another day.

"I'll help. Is it a person, place or thing? Or is it an action word? Or ... just read me the sentence."

"San Francisco 49ers suffer letdown."

"K, it's one word because it's a noun here."

[Because yeah, the 49ers can LET DOWN their fans with a loss, or the game can be considered a LETDOWN. No matter how many times we go over the noun/verb lesson, some people don't retain.]

Anyway.

Hyphens can be a bit trickier, there are always exceptions to the rules and sometimes the AP Stylebook just wants to F with our shit. So needless to say, I don't ALWAYS have the answer off the top of my head. Sometimes I just make a good guess and then I check myself.

[Before I wreck myself, clearly.]

Which is when I pull up a good old M DUB tab on the Chrome and figure it out.

Instructions: Pull up the site. Type the word you're wondering about into the search box. Hit the magnifying glass.

Magic! Our pals M and W will tell you how to use your word as a noun or a verb or whether it has a hyphen -- and if your search comes up with no results, then you're cray and need to reexamine your diction. STAT.

Voila! Now you're a newsroom/office genius, too. [Super modest, I knowwww.]

The lesson here? Just don't go to dictionary.com. That shit is NOT real.

As I said in 2009 -- I think Avi has me quoted in the WOOD TV book? -- "Ew.  Dictionary.com is for poor people."

I'm obvi just being a dick -- lately, I am a poor person -- but I stand by my statement. Dictionary.com has nothing on Merriam or Webster. It is so unprofesh and just NOT the real deal.

Thank you, State News, for teaching me the m-w ways.