A plurale tantum (Latin for “plural only”) is a noun that appears only in plural form and does not have a singular variant for referring to a single object. Words like “scissors”, “pants”, and “headphones” are functional examples of pluralia tantum (items that are a pair or set of something that works together). Words like “riches”, “surroundings”, and “suds” are conceptual examples: you can’t have a single “rich”, “surround”, or “sud”.

While most beach sand is created by the mechanical action of ocean waves, Mother Nature gets some serious help from the Parrotfish, a peculiar fish that eats coral to get to the algae inside and excretes ground coral in the form of sand.