ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Headlinese

Headlinese is a super cool way of writing that is used by newspapers and magazines to make their headlines look catchy and interesting. The goal of headlinese is to grab your attention and make you want to read the article.

To start, you need to know that headlines often have limited space, so writers use special abbreviations and shortenings to fit as much information as possible into a small space. They also use a lot of unique vocabulary and grammar that you may not see anywhere else.

For example, you might see words like "slam," "whack," or "boost" in a headline, which are all exciting-sounding words that grab your attention. You might also see abbreviations like "govt" instead of "government" or "biz" for "business." These abbreviations help save space in the headline.

Another thing you might notice about headlinese is that writers often drop unnecessary words like "a," "an," "the," or "of" in order to make the headline shorter and punchier. For example, instead of saying "The dog becomes a hero," a headline might simply say "Dog Hero!"

Overall, headlinese is a fun and interesting way to write headlines that can make you want to pick up a newspaper or magazine and learn more about what's going on in the world.