Short answers, pulled from the story.
Noah Webster died in debt after selling only 2,500 copies of his massive dictionary. His unfinished dream became the foundation of the most influential reference work in American history.
George and Charles Merriam purchased the rights to Noah Webster's dictionary from his estate in 1843. The brothers founded G & C Merriam Co. in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1831 and transformed the commercial flop into the cornerstone of American publishing.
The 1961 publication of Webster's Third New International Dictionary edited by Philip B. Gove ignited a firestorm of public controversy. Gove shifted the dictionary from prescriptivism to descriptivism, describing how language was actually used rather than dictating how it should be used.
Merriam-Webster adopted the name Merriam-Webster, Incorporated in 1983 after losing the exclusive right to use the Webster name. The company became a subsidiary of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1964.
Merriam-Webster launched its first website in 1996 offering free access to an online dictionary and thesaurus. The company later launched a mobile dictionary and thesaurus service in 2007 in partnership with Ask Me How.
Merriam-Webster acquired the online word game Quordle in 2022. The company also co-distributed the word game collection Word War 5 in 1995.