More than 100 vocabulary-building quizzes make up the core of the book, with shorter sections on:

* The fascinating origins of words
* Quotes and misquotes
* Slang, dialects and secret languages
* Unforgettable Adverts, Famous Lines from Novels and Movies
* Newspeak, Basic English, spelling reform
* Malapropisms, politicians' blunders and 'mispeakings'
* Mnemonics and other memory joggers
* Palindromes and anagrams
* Semaphore. Morse, tic-tac, hand gestures and other ways of speaking without words

Entry after entry explores the byways, oddities and curiosities of the English language.