Planet Word: The Coolest Museum for Linguistics Lovers
I love words. As a kid, you could more often than not find me with my nose buried in a book. I used to LOVE taking trips to Borders (RIP) with my mom and brothers. I would grab a stack of books and sit over in the kid’s corner area until she told us it was time to go. At one of my old jobs, I would always keep a book in my bag to read during my lunch breaks. And my boyfriend and I reconnected years ago by starting a mini book club (where we were the only two members, lol).
My love for novels – especially fiction – and grammar runs deep. It was always something that came and felt natural to me. So when I found out about this museum in D.C. called Planet Word, I just knew I had to go and check it out!
My honey and I brought in 2022 with one of my besties and her husband in Maryland. The four of us, along with two of our other friends who traveled from New Jersey, took a trip to the museum and had the best time.
About the Museum
Planet Word is literally a museum about…well, words. It’s the world’s first voice-activated museum that has interactive galleries and exhibits that bring language to life in a myriad of ways. They had everything from a karaoke room to an interactive library. I was seriously in heaven!
The Galleries and Exhibits
A lot of the museums in D.C. have free admission, so that was nice. At Planet Word, there are a total of three floors and it’s recommended that you start at the top and work your way down. The first thing we did was check out “The Spoken World” gallery. In this room there’s a few dozen monitors that feature people from various countries around the world that give you an introduction on their native languages. My favorite part of this gallery was the HUGE globe that was located in the middle of the room that would shine lights on the country whose language you were learning about. It was pretty cool!
From there, we went to the “Where Do Words Come From” exhibit, which is a 22-foot-tall wall full of words that literally speak for themselves. There was a little bit of trivia mixed into this exhibit as well, and it was fun to see (and hear!) everyone in the room participate.
Then we went into “The Library” to browse through the museum’s collection, and even went through a secret door to get to the poetry nook. We spent wayyyyyy too much time in the karaoke room and ended up becoming the center of attention for about 20 minutes. Lol. And then we ended our visit by going into the advertising and storytelling rooms. I think we were all a little tired from all of the walking around but we had so much fun!
If you’re into words like me or just love going to museums, I highly recommend checking out Planet Word next time you’re in the D.C. area! It’s perfect for all ages and you’ll leave with a few new words to add to your vocabulary. You can check out their calendar of events here to plan your visit.