Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 11, 2025 is: darling • DAHR-ling • noun Darling can refer to a dearly loved person or to someone who is liked very much by a person or group. It can also mean “a kind and helpful person” as in, “Be a darling and carry this inside for me, would you?” // Our baby grandchild is just the sweetest little darling. // The actor has become a darling of the entertainment industry in both film and music. See the entry > Examples: “Rocking a BAPE hoodie and a slight nervousness, Jorjiana performed a freestyle and her most popular song, ‘ILBB2.' And then boom: There's no such thing as an overnight success, but it did seem as if Jorjiana was a social media darling by the next day.” — Damien Scott, Billboard, 20 Feb. 2025 Did you know? The opening lines of the rock band Wilco's song “My Darling,” sung from the perspective of a parent calming their sleepless child, demonstrate a very common use of the word darling: “Go back to sleep now, my darling / And I'll keep all the bad dreams away.” Darling is an ancient word, traceable all the way back to the Old English noun dēorling, which was formed by attaching the suffix -ling to the adjective dēore, the ancestor of dear, which describes that which is regarded very affectionately or fondly, is highly valued or esteemed, or is beloved. Darling, as in “my darling,” is often used as a term of endearment, whether for a child or a sweetheart, but it can also be used as a synonym of the noun favorite, as in “the word darling has proven itself a darling of songwriters for many centuries.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 10, 2025 is: uncanny • un-KAN-ee • adjective Uncanny is typically used to describe something that is strange or unusual in a way that is surprising or difficult to understand. It can also describe something that seems to have a supernatural character or origin. // The child has an uncanny ability to recognize streets and locations she's seen only once or twice before. // The lights suddenly flickered, and we were both overcome with an eerie, uncanny feeling. See the entry > Examples: "... as Nelson Moultrie walked through the cemetery and observed trees growing in ways that resemble the shapes of people, like one that bore an uncanny resemblance to a pair of legs, she said she's already felt the presence of the people buried there." — Laura Liebman, The Post & Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), 21 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Uncanny describes that which unsettles us, such as disquieting observations, or mysterious situations and circumstances. Strip the word of its prefix, though, and you're left with canny, a word that can be used as a synonym for clever and prudent. While canny and uncanny don't appear to be antonyms, they both come from an early Scots word canny meaning "free from risk; wise, prudent, cautious." And in Scots, canny has for centuries had a secondary meaning more similar to that of its mysterious cousin: the Oxford English Dictionary defines a sense of the word used chiefly in negative constructions (e.g., “not canny”) to describe what is not safe to be involved with, or more broadly, what is not in accordance with what is right or natural, as in "the idea is not canny." Rather uncanny.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 9, 2025 is: gloss • GLAHSS • verb To gloss a word or phrase is to provide its meaning, or in other words, to explain or define it. // Many unfamiliar terms are glossed in the book's introduction. See the entry > Examples: “It is revealing that early dictionaries regularly defined equality as ‘conformity,' or glossed the word, like Noah Webster did in 1806, as ‘likeness, evenness, uniformity.'” — Darrin M. McMahon, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1 Apr. 2024 Did you know? If you're the type of word nerd who finds poring over book glossaries to be the bee's knees, we know you'll get a buzz from this gloss of the verb gloss. To gloss something, such as a word or phrase, is to explain or define it. The noun gloss, it follows, refers to (among other things) a brief explanation of a word or expression. And a glossary of course is a collection of textual glosses, or of specialized terms, with their meanings. Both forms of gloss, as well as the word glossary, trace back to the Greek noun glôssa, meaning “tongue,” “language,” or “obscure word requiring explanation.” Another descendent of glôssa, the English noun glossa, refers not to a bee's knees but to a bee's tongue, or to the tongue of another insect.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 8, 2025 is: modicum • MAH-dih-kum • noun Modicum is a formal word that means “a small amount.” It is almost always used with of. // The band enjoyed a modicum of success in the early 2010s before becoming an international sensation. See the entry > Examples: “Imagine, for example, that the gods decided to bestow upon Sisyphus a modicum of mercy. The rock, the hill, the never-ending, pointless labor all remained nonnegotiable as far as the gods were concerned, but the mercy of the gods was to change Sisyphus's attitude to these things. … He is never happier than when rolling large boulders up steep hills, and the gods have offered him the eternal fulfillment of this strange desire.” — Mark Rowlands, The Word of Dog: What Our Canine Companions Can Teach Us About Living a Good Life, 2024 Did you know? It wouldn't be wrong to say that the English language has more than a modicum of words referring to a small amount of something—it has oodles, from smidgen to soupçon. But while modicum can be applied to countable or physical things (like words or salt) it is almost always applied instead to abstract concepts like respect, success, control, hope, dignity, or privacy. Modicum traces back to the Latin noun modus, meaning “measure,” which just so happens to be the ancestor of more than a modicum of English words, from moderate and modify to mold and commode.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2025 is: bumptious • BUMP-shus • adjective Bumptious describes people who are rudely and often noisily confident or over-assertive. It can also be applied to actions or behaviors that show this same attitude. // Our host apologized for the bumptious party guest who caused a scene before being asked to leave. See the entry > Examples: "She comes across as a bumptious, irritating ten-year-old who believes that her main vice, her steam-roller self-confidence, is a virtue." — Lloyd Evans, The Spectator (London), 17 Aug. 2024 Did you know? While evidence dates bumptious to the beginning of the 19th century, the word was uncommon enough decades later that Edward Bulwer-Lytton included the following in his 1850 My Novel: "'She holds her head higher, I think,' said the landlord, smiling. 'She was always—not exactly proud like, but what I calls Bumptious.' 'I never heard that word before,' said the parson, laying down his knife and fork. 'Bumptious indeed, though I believe it is not in the dictionary, has crept into familiar parlance, especially amongst young folks at school and college.'" The word is, of course, now in "the dictionary"; ours notes that it comes from the noun bump and the suffix -tious, echoing other disapproving modifiers including captious ("fault-finding") and fractious ("troublemaking").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 6, 2025 is: exculpate • EK-skull-payt • verb To exculpate someone is to prove that they are not guilty of doing something wrong. // The editorial expresses confidence that the evidence will exculpate the accused. See the entry > Examples: “Research shows that social-media use is associated with greater narcissism (as well as depression and anxiety).... But it is too easy to exculpate ourselves as a society by pointing to technology and trends we can scarcely control, and young adults may not be in a position to address their avoidant behavior. The rest of us can help.” — Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic, 1 June 2023 Did you know? There's no need to say “my bad” if you're unfamiliar with exculpate; while the word is far from rare, it is most often encountered in formal writing in reference to the clearing of someone of alleged fault or guilt, as in “they were exculpated of any wrongdoing.” You may be more familiar with a pair of terms that, like exculpate, come from the Latin noun culpa, meaning “blame” or “guilt.” One is the adjective culpable, used to describe someone deserving of condemnation or blame. The other is the Latin phrase mea culpa, which translates directly as “through my fault” and refers to an acknowledgement of personal fault or error that is more formal than, well, “my bad.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 5, 2025 is: plethora • PLETH-uh-ruh • noun Plethora refers to a very large amount or number of something. Plethora is most often used in the phrase "a plethora of." // The hotel offers a plethora of amenities, including indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness center, and world-class dining. See the entry > Examples: "In 1895, Japan won Taiwan from China in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, ending the Sino-Japanese War, and from 1895 to 1945, the island was a colony of Japan. The cultural influences of Japan persist to this day: in the tiny coffee shops with their enticing nutty aromas, in the plethora of Japanese-influenced sushi restaurants, and in Taiwan's highly efficient postal service and train systems." — Kim Liao, Where Every Ghost Has a Name: A Memoir of Taiwanese Independence, 2024 Did you know? Plethora was first used in English to refer to a medical condition marked by an excess volume of blood or other bodily fluid, with associated swelling and redness. (Its Greek ancestor, the noun plēthṓra, refers to a similar excess, or to general fullness or crowdedness.) These days, plethora is most often used in general contexts to refer to a large number or amount of something. While plethora conveys a plural meaning, it is a grammatically singular word, which makes choosing whether to pair it with a singular or plural verb confusing. Both can be correctly used, however; choose the singular if you wish to emphasize the grouping or collection ("a plethora of books is available"), and choose the plural if you wish to emphasize the individual elements or components ("a plethora of books have been written on the subject").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 4, 2025 is: risible • RIZZ-uh-bul • adjective Risible is a formal word used disapprovingly to describe things that deserve to be mocked or laughed at because they are absurd or unreasonable. // Although the teachers derided the students' slang as risible nonsense, the same had been said about their own generation's lingo. See the entry > Examples: "Smartwatches and smartphones are banned in my children's schools during the school day, which I'm very happy about; I find any argument for allowing these devices in the classroom to be risible." — Jessica Grose, The New York Times, 27 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Say “cheese”! Now say thank you to the risorius muscles near the corners of your mouth for helping you smile. You might find this exercise a bit ridiculous—risible, even—but we're here to explain that there is no need for derision; it's for a wordy reason. Risible, ridiculous, derision, and risorius all come from the Latin verb ridēre, meaning “to laugh.” This etymology helps make the meaning of risible clear; something is described as risible (such as saying “cheese” out loud to yourself while looking at your phone/computer) when it arouses or provokes laughter. But just as its synonym laughable often describes things deserving not just of laughter but of eye-rolling scorn, risible is frequently applied to that which merits both sneer and chortle, scoff and guffaw. Words are funny like that.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 3, 2025 is: sleuth • SLOOTH • verb To sleuth is to carefully or methodically search for information, or to act as a detective. // We spent hours at the flea market sleuthing for 19th century paintings. See the entry > Examples: "To fill the market with vintage treasure, we called upon some of the industry's best dressed—Anok Yai, Emma Chamberlain, Hamish Bowles, Julia Sarr-Jamois, Kaia Gerber, Paloma Elsesser, Tabitha Simmons, Tonne Goodman, and Gigi Hadid—to sleuth through eBay and curate their must-haves." — Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 6 March 2025 Did you know? "They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!" Those canine tracks in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles set the great Sherlock Holmes sleuthing on the trail of a murderer. It was a case of art imitating etymology. When Middle English speakers first borrowed sleuth from the Old Norse word slōth, the term referred to the track of an animal or person. In Scotland, sleuth hund referred to a kind of bloodhound used to hunt game or track down fugitives from justice. In 19th-century U.S. English, sleuthhound, soon shortened to sleuth, began to be used for a detective. From there, sleuth slipped into verb use to apply to what a sleuth does.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 2, 2025 is: ziggurat • ZIG-uh-rat • noun A ziggurat is an ancient Mesopotamian temple consisting of a pyramidal structure built in successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top. The word ziggurat is also sometimes used for a similarly shaped structure. // Ancient ziggurats were always built with a core of mud brick and an exterior covered with baked brick. They had no internal chambers and were usually square or rectangular. See the entry > Examples: "The Breuer building, the former home of the Whitney Museum on New York's Upper East Side, counts as one of the defining buildings of the [brutalist] movement. Completed in 1966, it was designed by Marcel Breuer, who envisioned the structure as an inverted ziggurat." — Alex Greenberger, Art in America, 14 Jan. 2025 Did you know? French professor of archaeology François Lenormant spent a great deal of time poring over ancient Assyrian texts. In those cuneiform inscriptions, he pieced together a long-forgotten language, now known as Akkadian, which proved valuable to our understanding of the ancient civilization. Through his studies, he became familiar with the Akkadian word for Mesopotamia's towering, stepped temples: ziqqurratu, which stepped into English as ziggurat.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 2, 2025 is: ziggurat • ZIG-uh-rat • noun A ziggurat is an ancient Mesopotamian temple consisting of a pyramidal structure built in successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top. The word ziggurat is also sometimes used for a similarly shaped structure. // Ancient ziggurats were always built with a core of mud brick and an exterior covered with baked brick. They had no internal chambers and were usually square or rectangular. See the entry > Examples: "The Breuer building, the former home of the Whitney Museum on New York's Upper East Side, counts as one of the defining buildings of the brutalist movement. Completed in 1966, it was designed by Marcel Breuer, who envisioned the structure as an inverted ziggurat." — Alex Greenberger, Art in America, 14 Jan. 2025 Did you know? French professor of archaeology François Lenormant spent a great deal of time poring over ancient Assyrian texts. In those cuneiform inscriptions, he pieced together a long-forgotten language, now known as Akkadian, which proved valuable to our understanding of the ancient civilization. Through his studies, he became familiar with the Akkadian word for Mesopotamia's towering, stepped temples: ziqqurratu, which stepped into English as ziggurat.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 1, 2025 is: convoluted • KAHN-vuh-loo-tud • adjective Something described as convoluted is very complicated and difficult to understand, or has many curves and turns. // The speaker's argument was so convoluted that most of the audience had trouble determining whether they were for or against the new policy. // The route from the airport to the village was long and convoluted. See the entry > Examples: “The publishing house had recently declined to publish my new book and one of their editors appeared in my inbox, asking for a blurb for an upcoming title. Because this felt awkward, I made a convoluted show of declining. So convoluted that my reply left several avenues for them to come back and ask again. Rather than isolate the issue in a clear way, I coughed up a blurb.” — Sloane Crosley, LitHub.com, 12 Mar. 2025 Did you know? If you've ever felt your brain twisting itself into a pretzel while trying to follow a complicated or hard-to-follow line of reasoning, you'll appreciate the relative simplicity of the adjective convoluted, which is perfect for describing head-scratchers (and pretzel-makers). Convoluted traces back to the Latin verb convolvere, meaning “to roll up, coil, or twist.” Originally, convoluted (like its predecessor in English, the verb convolute) was used in the context of things having literal convolutions—in other words, twisty things like intestines or a ram's horns. Over time it expanded to figuratively describe things like arguments, plots, stories, logic, etc., that are intricate or feature many twists and turns that make them difficult to understand.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 30, 2025 is: insouciance • in-SOO-see-unss • noun Insouciance is a formal word that refers to a feeling of carefree unconcern. It can also be understood as a word for the relaxed and calm state of a person who is not worried about anything. // The young actor charmed interviewers with his easy smile and devil-may-care insouciance. See the entry > Examples: “Gladiator II is OK when Denzel's off-screen, but sensational when he's on it. ... What makes the performance great is its insouciance; it's both precise and feather-light. And it's what a great actor can do when he's set free to have fun, to laugh at himself a little bit. ... Denzel's Macrinus is gravitas and comic relief in one package.” — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 22 Nov. 2024 Did you know? If you were alive and of whistling age in the late 1980s or early 1990s, chances are you whistled (and snapped your fingers, and tapped your toes) to a little ditty called “Don't Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin, an a cappella reggae-jazz-pop tune that took the charts by surprise and by storm. An ode to cheerful insouciance if ever there was one, its lyrics are entirely concerned with being entirely unconcerned, remaining trouble-free in the face of life's various stressors and calamities. Such carefree nonchalance is at the heart of insouciance, which arrived in English (along with the adjective insouciant), from French, in the 1800s. The French word comes from a combining of the negative prefix in- with the verb soucier, meaning “to trouble or disturb.” The easiness and breeziness of insouciance isn't always considered beautiful, however. Insouciance may also be used when someone's lack of concern for serious matters is seen as more careless than carefree.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 29, 2025 is: furtive • FER-tiv • adjective Furtive describes something that is done in a quiet and secret way to avoid being noticed. It can also mean "expressive of stealth" or "sly" (as in "a furtive look"), or "obtained underhandedly" (as in "furtive gains"). // We exchanged furtive smiles across the table, carefully not to attract the teacher's attention. See the entry > Examples: "Like cardinals, Carolina wrens have slowly and gradually immigrated into New Brunswick and other areas of the Maritimes…. So if we look at this little bird, what do we see? First, it 'looks' like a wren, meaning it's small with a cocked-up tail and a fairly long beak. It would also have a rather perky behaviour and furtive movements. Its coloration is quite striking, being a rich earthy brown above and deep caramel below, and another distinctive feature is a prominent white line over each eye." — Jim Wilson, The Daily Gleaner (New Brunswick, Canada), 27 Mar. 2025 Did you know? You can't steal someone's heart without capturing their attention, nor can you steal someone's thunder without hijacking their audience's attention. But attention is something most thieves would rather avoid; whether stealing a glance or a diamond, one must be furtive or risk getting caught in the act. When first used in written English in the early 1600s, furtive meant "done by stealth." It later adopted the less common meaning "stolen" or "obtained underhandedly." Whichever meaning you choose, the word has a fittingly elusive ancestry, either stepping into English via the French furtif or coming directly from that word's ancestor, the Latin furtivus, itself a descendent of fur, meaning "thief."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 28, 2025 is: alacrity • uh-LAK-ruh-tee • noun Alacrity refers to a quick and cheerful readiness to do something. // She accepted the invitation to go on the trip with an alacrity that surprised her parents, who had assumed she wouldn't be interested. See the entry > Examples: “Antipater, about to mount his horse, saw Pollio and Sameas so close to him that the sleeve of Sameas almost touched his own in the crush. … Antipater had graciously invited the two to view his new grandson and sip a cup of wine cooled by snow brought from Mount Hermon. The two accepted with alacrity.” — Zora Neale Hurston, The Life of Herod the Great, 2025 Did you know? “I have not that alacrity of spirit / Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have,” says William Shakespeare's King Richard III in the play that bears his name. Alas and alack, Richard! Alacrity comes from the Latin word alacer, meaning “lively” or “eager,” and suggests physical quickness coupled with eagerness or enthusiasm. Thus, a spirit that lacks alacrity—like Richard III's—is in the doldrums, in need of a little (to use a much less formal word than alacrity) get-up-and-go.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 27, 2025 is: decimate • DESS-uh-mayt • verb Decimate can mean both “to destroy a large number of (plants, animals, people, etc.)” or “to severely damage or destroy a large part of (something).” // The bay's lobsters have been decimated by disease. // Budget cuts have decimated public services throughout the state. See the entry > Examples: “The deer—and there is an abundance of those animals this year—got into my beans and within a few nights they had all but decimated my crop. Tracks showed that at least half a dozen whitetails were invading the garden every night.” — Donnie Johnston, The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), 6 Aug. 2024 Did you know? Decimate is a word that often raises hackles, at least those belonging to a small but committed group of logophiles who feel that it is commonly misused. The issue that they have with the decline and fall of the word decimate is that once upon a time in ancient Rome it had a very singular meaning: “to select by lot and kill every tenth man of a military unit.” However, many words in English descended from Latin have changed and/or expanded their meanings in their travels. For example, we no longer think of sinister as meaning “on the left side,” and delicious can describe things both tasty and delightful. Was the “to kill every tenth man” meaning the original use of decimate in English? Yes, but not by much. It took only a few decades for decimate to acquire its broader, familiar meaning of “to severely damage or destroy,” which has been employed steadily since the 17th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 26, 2025 is: nonchalant • nahn-shuh-LAHNT • adjective Someone described as nonchalant is relaxed and calm, either because they do not care about something or because they are not worried about something. Nonchalant can also be used to describe something, such as demeanor or behavior, that expresses such relaxed, calm unconcern. // The team showed a somewhat nonchalant attitude at the beginning of the season, but they became more serious once the championship was within reach. See the entry > Examples: "He is largely unaffected by the fame and fortune and all the talk of greatness tends to be greeted with a nonchalant shrug." — The Evening Times (Glasgow, Scotland), 19 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Since nonchalant ultimately comes from words meaning "not" and "be warm," it's no surprise that the word is all about keeping one's cool. Nonchalant's Old French ancestor is the verb nonchaloir, meaning "to disregard," which combines non-, meaning "not," with chaloir, meaning "to concern." Chaloir in turn traces back to the Latin calēre, meaning "to be warm" (calēre is also the forerunner of the heat-related English word calorie). You might assume that the prefix non- implies the existence of an antonymous chalant, but no such word has developed in English. It's no big deal though—if you want a word that means the opposite of nonchalant, both concerned and interested can do the job.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2025 is: travail • truh-VAIL • noun Travail is a formal word, usually used in plural, that refers to a difficult experience or situation. // The book describes the political travails of the governor during her first year in office. See the entry > Examples: "Written by Samy Burch, the film [Coyote vs. Acme] follows the travails of the desert denizen who is tired of being slammed with Acme products as he tries to outsmart the Roadrunner. Coyote finally decides to hire a lawyer to take the Acme Corp. to court for product liability, such as faulty rocket skates and defective aerial bombs." — Meg James, The Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Travail traces back to trepalium, a Late Latin word for an instrument of torture. We don't know exactly what a trepalium looked like, but the word's history gives us an idea. Trepalium comes from the Latin adjective tripalis, which means "having three stakes" (from tri-, meaning "three," and palus, meaning "stake"). Trepalium eventually led to the Anglo-French verb travailler, meaning "to torment" but also, more mildly, "to trouble" and "to journey." The Anglo-French noun travail was borrowed into English in the 13th century, along with another descendant of travailler, travel.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 24, 2025 is: ostensible • ah-STEN-suh-bul • adjective Ostensible is used to describe something that seems or is said to be true or real, but is possibly not true or real. In other words, it is plausible rather than demonstrably true or real. // The ostensible purpose of a filibuster is to extend debate, but in reality it is used to delay or prevent action. See the entry > Examples: “No drums, no bass, no conventional song structures: Hosianna Mantra was a 40-minute contemplation of the cosmos and cosmic love, couched in words and sounds that explicitly linked it to humanity's grandest and most consistent way of considering meaning, religion. The ostensible polytheism conveyed by the name and the concept were only ways to realize how little we actually know, and how much we wager through mere survival.” — Grayson Haver Currin, Pitchfork, 19 Jan. 2025 Did you know? British philosopher and economist Jeremy Bentham once wrote to Indian religious leader Ram Mohan Roy asking him to “send me two letters—one confidential, another ostensible.” By ostensible he meant that, unlike the confidential letter, the latter was intended to be shown to people other than Bentham himself. This sense of ostensible shows clearly the influence of the word's Latin ancestor, the verb ostendere, meaning “to hold out for inspection,” “to show,” “to make clear by one's actions,” and “to demonstrate.” Ostensible is still used today as it is in Bentham's letter, but it is much more likely to suggest a discrepancy between a declared or implied aim or reason (i.e., the aim or reason that someone displays or “shows” to others) and the true one. For example, someone might give “seeing an old friend” as their ostensible reason for planning a trip when in reality they are planning on spending most of their time relaxing on the beach.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2025 is: slough • SLUFF • verb Slough is a formal verb used for the action of getting rid of something unwanted. It is usually used with off. Slough can also mean "to lose a dead layer of (skin)" or "to become shed or cast off." // The editorial urges the mayor not to slough off responsibility for the errors in the report. // The exfoliating cleanser promises to gently slough away dead skin cells. See the entry > Examples: "Before she left her apartment, she gathered and washed some in a bowl. Then she drew a bath and soaked for a while, eating the figs one by one, swallowing even the hard stems. The steam and water loosened her tense muscles, and her aches started to vanish. She scrubbed herself until the dead skin sloughed off, and underneath, she was new." — Sally Wen Mao, Ninetails: Nine Tales, 2024 Did you know? There are two verbs spelled slough in English, as well as two nouns, and both sets have different pronunciations. The first noun, referring to a swamp or a discouraged state of mind, is pronounced to rhyme with either blue or cow. Its related verb, which can mean "to plod through mud," has the same pronunciation. The second noun, pronounced to rhyme with cuff, refers to the shed skin of a snake (as well as anything else that has been cast off). Its related verb describes the action of shedding or eliminating something, just like a snake sheds its skin. This slough comes from Middle English slughe and is related to slūch, a Middle High German word meaning "snakeskin."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2025 is: slough • SLUFF • verb Slough is a formal verb used for the action of getting rid of something unwanted. It is usually used with off. Slough can also mean "to lose a dead layer of (skin)" or "to become shed or cast off." // The editorial urges the mayor not to slough off responsibility for the errors in the report. // The exfoliating cleanser promises to gently slough away dead skin cells. See the entry > Examples: "Before she left her apartment, she gathered and washed some in a bowl. Then she drew a bath and soaked for a while, eating the figs one by one, swallowing even the hard stems. The steam and water loosened her tense muscles, and her aches started to vanish. She scrubbed herself until the dead skin sloughed off, and underneath, she was new." — Sally Wen Mao, Ninetails: Nine Tales, 2024 Did you know? There are two verbs spelled slough in English, as well as two nouns, and both sets have different pronunciations. The first noun, referring to a swamp or a discouraged state of mind, is pronounced to rhyme with either blue or cow. Its related verb, which can mean "to plod through mud," has the same pronunciation. The second noun, pronounced to rhyme with cuff, refers to the shed skin of a snake (as well as anything else that has been cast off). Its related verb describes the action of shedding or eliminating something, just like a snake sheds its skin. This slough comes from Middle English slughe and is related to slūch, a Middle High German word meaning "snakeskin."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 22, 2025 is: liaison • lee-AY-zahn • noun Liaison refers to a person who helps organizations or groups work together and provide information to each other, or to a relationship that allows such interactions. Liaison can also refer to an illicit sexual relationship. // The new position involves acting as a liaison between the police department and city schools. // The committee has maintained close liaison with some of the former board members. See the entry > Examples: “In 2019, [Jefri] Lindo found work at Bestia, the trendy downtown restaurant. ... He flourished there, working his way up to house expeditor, acting as the key liaison between the kitchen and dining room.” — Laura Tejeda, The Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2025 Did you know? If you took French in school, you might remember that liaison is the word for the phenomenon that causes a silent consonant at the end of one word to sound like it begins the next word when that word begins with a vowel, so that a phrase like beaux arts sounds like boh zahr. We can thank French for the origin of the term liaison, as well. It comes from Middle French lier, meaning “to bind or tie.” Other English senses of liaison apply it to all kinds of bonds—from binding and thickening agents used in cooking (as in “a butter and flour liaison”), to people who work to connect different groups, to the kind of secret relationship sometimes entered into by two people who are romantically attracted to one another.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 21, 2025 is: bodacious • boh-DAY-shuss • adjective Bodacious is used as an informal synonym of remarkable and noteworthy, as well as sexy and voluptuous. In some dialects of the Southern and Midland US, bodacious is used by its oldest meaning: "outright, unmistakable." // The bodacious decor of the boutique hotel is intended to appeal to the young and the hip. See the entry > Examples: "There's no need to lug in a 6-foot specimen tree to add bodacious botanicals into your home, because even the smallest planters can make a big impact when intentionally pairing striking foliage with a unique vessel." — Kristin Guy, Sunset Magazine, 5 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Some of our readers may know bodacious as a word that figured prominently in the lingo of the 1989 film Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Others may recall the term's frequent use in the long-running "Snuffy Smith" comic strip. Neither the creators of the comic strip nor the movie can claim to have coined bodacious, which began appearing in print in the mid-1800s, but both surely contributed to its popularity. The exact origin of the word is uncertain, but it is most likely a blend of bold and audacious, and it may be linked to boldacious, a now-rare British dialect term meaning "brazen" or "impudent."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 20, 2025 is: resurrection • rez-uh-REK-shun • noun In Christian theology, Resurrection (typically capitalized in this use) refers to the event in which Jesus Christ returned to life after his death. In general contexts, resurrection refers to the act of causing something that had ended or been forgotten or lost to exist again, to be used again, etc. // Church members look forward to celebrating the Resurrection every Easter. // The community applauded the resurrection of the commuter rail system. See the entry > Examples: “Some of their efforts to follow Scripture were wonderfully zany. To wrest the death and resurrection of Jesus away from both pagan fertility rituals and Hallmark, they outlawed Easter egg hunts. ... She smashed chocolate Easter bunnies with a meat tenderizer and ripped the heads off marshmallow Peeps, while the boys gleefully gobbled the ruined remnants of consumer culture.” — Eliza Griswold, Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church, 2024 Did you know? The word resurrection first arose in English in the 14th century, coming from the Anglo-French word resurreccioun, which in turn comes from the Late Latin verb resurgere, meaning “to rise from the dead.” Originally, the word was used in Christian contexts to refer to the rising of Christ from the dead or to the festival celebrating this rising (now known as Easter). Perhaps showing the influence of the Late Latin verb resurgere's Latin forerunner, which could mean “to rise again” (as from a recumbent position) as well as “to spring up again after being cut” (used of plants), resurrection soon began to be used more generally in the senses of “resurgence” or “revival.” It even forms part of the name of the resurrection fern, an iconic fern of the southern United States often seen growing on the limbs of live oak trees. The fern is so named due to the fact that in dry weather it curls up, turns brown, and appears dead, only to be “brought back to life” when exposed to moisture.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 19, 2025 is: fastidious • fass-TID-ee-us • adjective Someone described as fastidious is extremely or overly careful about how they do something. Fastidious may also describe someone who is difficult to please, or someone who always wants to be clean, neat, etc. // Our parents taught us to be fastidious in keeping our rooms clean, making sure to dust every surface and sweep out every corner. // He's a fastidious dresser whose fashion choices seem to anticipate the newest trends. See the entry > Examples: "Becoming Led Zeppelin, filmmaker Bernard MacMahon's new documentary about the band, certainly succeeds at taking Led Zeppelin seriously, in ways that might disappoint some viewers but that I found both compelling and refreshing. Becoming Led Zeppelin doesn't hide that it's an authorized biopic … but the film is so fastidious and detail-oriented that it never feels like hagiography." — Jack Hamilton, Slate, 11 Feb. 2025 Did you know? If you presume that the adjective fastidious bears some relation to fast, not so fast. Fastidious comes from Latin fastidium, meaning "aversion" or "disgust." Fastidium is believed to be a combination of fastus, meaning "arrogance," and taedium, "irksomeness" or "disgust." (Taedium is also the source of tedium and tedious.) In keeping with its Latin roots, fastidious once meant "haughty," "disgusting," and "disagreeable," but the word is now most often applied to people who are very meticulous or overly difficult to please, or to work which reflects a demanding or precise attitude. Our own fastidiousness requires us to point out that the familiar adjective fast comes not from Latin, but from Old English.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 18, 2025 is: collaborate • kuh-LAB-uh-rayt • verb To collaborate is to work with another person or group in order to do or achieve something. Collaborate can also be used disapprovingly to mean "to cooperate with or willingly assist an enemy of one's country and especially an enemy who occupies it during a war." // Several research teams from various countries collaborated closely on the project. // They were suspected of collaborating with enemy forces. See the entry > Examples: "Forever 21 collaborated with photographer Henry R. Jones II for the reveal of its Black History Month unisex collection. The 17-piece display delivers deeply personal pieces intimately connected to Jones' artistic journey. Known for his striking photography and poetry, Jones extends a unique invitation to the viewer, allowing them to immerse themselves in the intricate layers of his art." — Kenyatta Victoria, Essence, 1 May 2024 Did you know? The Latin prefix com-, meaning "with, together, or jointly," is a bit of a chameleon—it has a habit of changing its appearance depending on what it's next to. For example, if the word it precedes begins with l, com- becomes col-. In the case of collaborate, com- teamed up with the verb laborare ("to labor") to form the Late Latin word collaborare ("to labor together"). Be careful not to confuse collaborate with corroborate, another com- relative. This word was formed when com- (this time shape-shifting to cor-) joined forces with the Latin word robur ("strength"). Together, by way of the Latin verb corroborare, they created the meaning "to support or help prove (a statement, theory, etc.) by providing information or evidence," which carried over into the English word corroborate.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 17, 2025 is: uncouth • un-KOOTH • adjective Uncouth describes things, such as language or behavior, that are impolite or socially unacceptable. A person may also be described as uncouth if they are behaving in a rude way. // Stacy realized it would be uncouth to show up to the party without a gift, so she picked up a bottle of wine on the way. See the entry > Examples: “Perhaps people deride those who buy books solely for how they look because it reminds them that despite their primary love of literature, they still appreciate a beautiful cover. It's not of primary importance but liking how something looks in your home matters to some extent, even if it feels uncouth to acknowledge.” — Chiara Dello Joio, LitHub.com, 24 Jan. 2023 Did you know? Old English speakers used the word cūth to describe things that were familiar to them, and uncūth for the strange and mysterious. These words passed through Middle English into modern English with different spellings but the same meanings. While couth eventually dropped out of use, uncouth soldiered on. In Captain Singleton by English novelist Daniel Defoe, for example, the author refers to “a strange noise more uncouth than any they had ever heard,” while Shakespeare wrote of an “uncouth forest” in As You Like It. This “unfamiliar” sense of uncouth, however, joined couth in becoming, well, unfamiliar to most English users, giving way to the now-common meanings, “rude” and “lacking polish or grace.” The adjective couth in use today, meaning “sophisticated” or “polished,” arose at the turn of the 20th century, not from the earlier couth, but as a back-formation of uncouth, joining the ranks of other “uncommon opposites” such as kempt and gruntled.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 16, 2025 is: adversity • ad-VER-suh-tee • noun Adversity refers to a difficult situation or condition, or to a state of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune. // The soldiers were honored for acting with courage in the face of adversity. // The team overcame many adversities on their way to summiting the mountain. See the entry > Examples: “To foster self-reliance, colleges should focus on supports that empower students to face challenges. ... Instead of lowering demands to accommodate discomfort, institutions can create frameworks that help students cope, adapt and ultimately thrive in the face of adversity.” — Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, 11 Mar. 2025 Did you know? The world, alas, is full of adversity of all kinds, from misfortune to outright calamity. But while we—being humble lexicographers, not sagacious philosophers—cannot explain the source of such adversity, we can explain the source of the word adversity. If you've ever faced adversity and felt like fate, the world, or something else was turned against you, it will not surprise you that adversity traces back to the Latin verb advertere, meaning “to turn toward, direct,” itself a combination of the verb vertere, “to turn,” and the prefix ad-, “to.” The past participle of advertere is adversus, meaning “turned toward, facing, opposed,” which eventually led (via a couple languages in between) to the Middle English word adversite, meaning “opposition, hostility, misfortune, or hardship,” and the adversity we know today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 15, 2025 is: pugnacious • pug-NAY-shus • adjective Someone described as pugnacious shows a readiness or desire to fight or argue. // There's one pugnacious member on the committee who won't agree to anything. See the entry > Examples: "While looking through the Perkins telescope [at Saturn] one night, a pugnacious 10-year-old commented, 'Hey! I only see one ring. Rip off!'" — Tom Burns, The Delaware (Ohio) Gazette, 23 Oct. 2024 Did you know? Pugnacious individuals are often looking for a fight. While unpleasant, at least their fists are packing an etymological punch. Pugnacious comes from the Latin verb pugnare (meaning "to fight"), which in turn comes from the Latin word for "fist," pugnus. Another Latin word related to pugnus is pugil, meaning "boxer." Pugil is the source of our word pugilist, which means "fighter" and is used especially of professional boxers. Pugnare has also given us impugn ("to assail by words or arguments"), oppugn ("to fight against"), and repugnant (which is now used primarily in the sense of "exciting distaste or aversion," but which has also meant "characterized by contradictory opposition" and "hostile").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 14, 2025 is: druthers • DRUH-therz • noun plural Druthers is an informal word that refers to the power or opportunity to choose—in other words, free choice. It is used especially in the phrase if one had one's druthers. // If I had my druthers, I would travel all the time. See the entry > Examples: “If I had my druthers, if I made the sequel to ‘Companion,' it would just be a shot of her on the side of the road, cutting out her tracking chip and then cutting to her on a farm with a couple of million dollars.” — Drew Hancock, quoted in Variety, 1 Feb. 2025 Did you know? Nowadays, you're much more likely to encounter the plural noun druthers than its singular forebear, but that wasn't always the case. Druther, an alteration of “would rather” in some U.S. English dialects, first appeared in writing in the late 1800s. “Any way you druther have it, that is the way I druther have it,” says Huck to Tom in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, Detective (a sequel to the more famous Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which also included the word druther). This example of metanalysis (the shifting of a sound from one element of a phrase to another) had been around for some time in everyday speech when Twain put those words in Huck's mouth. By then, in fact, druthers had also become a plural noun, so Tom could reply, “There ain't any druthers about it, Huck Finn; nobody said anything about druthers,” though druthers didn't overtake druther in popularity (at least in print) until the mid-1900s.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 13, 2025 is: reminisce • rem-uh-NISS • verb To reminisce is to talk, think, or write about things that happened in the past. // After the official reunion dinner, the old friends gathered at a pub to reminisce about their high school days, now long past. See the entry > Examples: “Our parents would reminisce about their past happiness and point to the oversized photographic portrait taken of them at the county fair sometime in the mid-1970s, before we were born.” — Nora Lange, Us Fools, 2024 Did you know? Do you remember, say, the 21st night of September? Fantastic. Earth, Wind, and Fire does, too, on their classic hit from 1978, “September.” More than remember, the band reminisces—that is, they share details and express feelings about what they remember: dancing, a bell ringing, souls singing, et al. Reminisce distinguishes itself from words like remember and recollect by implying a casual recalling of experiences long past, often with a sense of nostalgia. Reminisce and its relatives reminiscence and reminiscent all trace back to the Latin verb reminisci, meaning “remember.” Reminisci in turn shares roots with mens, the Latin word for “mind.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 12, 2025 is: gustatory • GUSS-tuh-tor-ee • adjective Gustatory describes things that are related to or associated with eating or the sense of taste. // The deli has been widely praised for its astonishing variety of gustatory delights. See the entry > Examples: "For those who have never experienced the gustatory pleasure, these cream puffs consist of freshly baked pastry shells generously covered with powdered sugar and bloated with chilled vanilla pudding that has been pumped into them." — Carl Hamilton, The Cecil Whig (Elkton, Maryland), 12 Feb. 2025 Did you know? Gustatory is a member of a finite set of words that describe the senses with which we encounter our world, the other members being visual, aural, olfactory, and tactile. Like its peers, gustatory has its roots in Latin—in this case, the Latin word gustare, meaning "to taste." Gustare is a direct ancestor of gustatory, gustation, meaning "the act or sensation of tasting," and degustation, meaning "the action or an instance of tasting especially in a series of small portions." More distant relatives of gustare include choose and disgust.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 11, 2025 is: kitsch • KITCH • noun Kitsch refers to something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often cheap or tacky. Kitsch also refers to a tacky or lowbrow quality or condition. // The restaurant is decorated with 1950s furniture and kitsch from old TV shows. // The critic opined that the movie, despite its lofty ambitions, at times descended into kitsch. See the entry > Examples: “If you were dressing yourself in the early 2000s, you might feel some kind of way about Y2K fashion ruling the runways and the sidewalks once again. But if you weren't? It's entirely understandable that mining the annals of recent fashion history—and the vintage shops—would hold a certain appeal. For all its kitsch and camp, Y2K fashion is full of some intriguing gems.” — Boutayna Chokrane and Christina Pérez, Vogue, 26 Jan. 2025 Did you know? Have you ever browsed through a flea market or thrift shop? If so, chances are you're well-acquainted with kitsch, the various bits and bobs of popular culture—fuzzy dice, plastic flamingos, cartoon-themed plastic lunchboxes, etc.—that enjoy widespread popularity but don't hold much cultural esteem. Or maybe you're a fan of (what some might call) cheesy movies—action movies and rom-coms that score big at the box office but are panned by critics—kitsch often applies to them, too, as well as to “lowbrow” art of all kinds. English users borrowed kitsch in the early 20th century from German; according to scholars the word was popularized by Munich painters and art dealers in the 1860s and 1870s who used it to refer to popular and cheap artwork. The word's earlier origins are found in the German verb kitschen, meaning “to slap something (such as a work of art) together” as well as “to scrape up mud from the street.” Despite these muddy origins and the disapproving tone with which kitsch is often deployed, kitsch is not quite the “dirty” word it once was—kitsch today is as likely to be celebrated as it is to be derided.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 10, 2025 is: chary • CHAIR-ee • adjective Chary is usually used with about or of to describe someone who is cautious about doing something. // The director is chary about spending money. // I've always been chary of travelling alone. See the entry > Examples: “Overall, Rendell is chary about divulging the selling price of various documents, but he does occasionally reveal some financial details.” — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2024 Did you know? How did chary, which began as the opposite of cheery, become a synonym of wary? Don't worry, there's no need to be chary—the answer is not dreary. Chary's Middle English predecessor, charri, meant “sorrowful,” a sense that harks back to the Old English word cearig, meaning “troubled, troublesome, taking care,” which ultimately comes from an assumed-but-unattested Germanic word, karō, meaning “sorrow” or “worry,” that is also an ancestor of the word care. It's perhaps unsurprising then, that chary was once used to mean “dear” or “cherished.” Both sorrow and affection have largely faded from chary, and today the word is most often used as a synonym of careful.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 9, 2025 is: vouchsafe • vowch-SAYF • verb Vouchsafe is a formal and old-fashioned word meaning "to give (something) to someone as a promise or a privilege." // He vouchsafed the secret to only a few of his closest allies. See the entry > Examples: "[Arthur] Conan Doyle (1859-1930) wrote several horribly chilling tales of the supernatural, although this might surprise readers who only know his Sherlock Holmes stories. When there are eerie goings-on in the Holmes yarns, a rational explanation is inevitably vouchsafed, à la Scooby-Doo." — Jake Kerridge, The Daily Telegraph (London), 20 Dec. 2023 Did you know? Shakespeare fans are well acquainted with vouchsafe, which in its Middle English form vouchen sauf meant "to grant, consent, or deign." The word, which was borrowed with its present meaning from Anglo-French in the 14th century, pops up fairly frequently in the Bard's work—60 times, to be exact. "Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love," beseeches Proteus of Silvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. "Vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food," King Lear begs his daughter Regan. But you needn't turn to Shakespeare to find vouchsafe; today's writers still find it to be a perfectly useful word.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 8, 2025 is: apparatchik • ah-puh-RAH-chik • noun Apparatchik is used disapprovingly to refer to a blindly devoted official, follower, or member of an organization, such as a corporation or political party. // This generation of graduates wants more out of life than to become establishment apparatchiks. See the entry > Examples: "Played by What We Do in the Shadows' Matt Berry, Shazbor is a faithful party apparatchik and staunch defender of his country's traditions ..." — Damon Wise, Deadline, 25 Jan. 2025 Did you know? The apparat in apparatchik (a term English speakers borrowed from Russian) essentially means "party machine," with machine referring to a highly organized political group under the leadership of a boss or small group of individuals: apparatchik originally referred to someone functioning as a cog in the system of the Communist Party. The term is not a flattering one, and its negative connotations reflect the perception of some Communists as obedient drones in the great Party machine. In current use, however, a person doesn't have to be a member of the Communist Party to be called an apparatchik; they just have to be someone who mindlessly follows orders in an organization or bureaucracy.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 7, 2025 is: malleable • MAL-ee-uh-bul • adjective Something described as malleable is capable of being stretched or bent into different shapes, or capable of being easily changed or influenced. // Let the cookie dough thaw until it becomes malleable enough to thinly roll. // Students' minds are malleable and they need positive influences and guidance. See the entry > Examples: "She begins by sculpting with malleable French clays to create her figures, then she makes a mold." — Fina Badolato, The Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, 13 Feb. 2022 Did you know? Language is constantly evolving; the meanings, spellings, and pronunciations of words are reshaped over time. Take, for example, the Latin noun malleus, meaning "hammer." This word was adapted to create the Latin verb malleare, meaning "to hammer," which led eventually to the English adjective malleable. Malleable originally meant "capable of being extended or shaped by beating with a hammer," and over time adopted the broader sense "capable of being shaped, altered, or controlled." If you guessed that maul and mallet, other English words for specific types of hammers, are also modeled from malleus, you have hit the nail on the head.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 6, 2025 is: impresario • im-pruh-SAHR-ee-oh • noun An impresario is a person who manages, puts on, or sponsors a performance or other entertainment, such as a concert, play, or sporting event. // The former heavyweight retired from the ring and later became a boxing impresario. See the entry > Examples: “When he stepped on stage during a comedy open mic at Castle Street spot The Barzarre in June of 2022, Louis Maynor, better known as Louis Tee, was mainly known as a producer, a hip-hop impresario who'd been staging shows and concerts around Wilmington since the late 1990s.” — John Staton, The Wilmington (North Carolina) Star-News, 21 Dec. 2023 Did you know? Concerts, music festivals, television series, professional wrestling matches—these are quite the undertakings. Luckily, there's a word for the impressive individuals responsible for organizing and overseeing such productions: impresario. In the 1700s, English borrowed impresario directly from Italian, whose noun impresa means “undertaking.” (A close relative is the English word emprise, “an adventurous, daring, or chivalric enterprise,” which, like impresario, traces back to the Latin verb prehendere, meaning “to seize.”) At first English speakers used impresario as the Italians did, to refer to opera company managers, though today it is used much more broadly. It should be noted that, despite their apparent similarities, impress and impresario are not related. Impress is a descendant of the Latin verb pressare, a form of the word premere, meaning “to press.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 5, 2025 is: benign • bih-NYNE • adjective Benign describes something that does not cause harm or damage. In medical contexts it is used to describe something that does not threaten life or health (as in "a benign tumor"). Additional meanings include "mild and pleasant" (as in "benign weather conditions") and "showing kindness and gentleness" (as in "a benign outlook"). // The project required that we manage some inconvenient but ultimately benign conditions. See the entry > Examples: "'The era of innocent tourism—where it was seen as a benign and universally positive force—ended around 2015,' says Justin Francis, co-founder of Responsible Travel, a UK-based travel agency specialising in ethical tourism. 'In Europe and America, protests against overtourism are growing. People are realising their vacations can leave lasting impacts on others' homes.'" — Tarang Mohnot, BBC, 18 Feb. 2025 Did you know? Benign traces back to the Latin adjective benignus, which was formed from bene, meaning "well," and the verb gignere, "to beget"—that is, "to produce or create." Gignere is also the root of such English words as genius and germ, and even shares distant ancestry with kin. The meanings of benign range from describing an absence of danger or harm to that which shows kindness or is gracious or wholesome.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 4, 2025 is: hew • HYOO • verb Hew is commonly used with to to mean "to conform to or adhere to (something)." Hew on its own has several meanings having to do with cutting or shaping with a sharp tool, such as an ax. Both hewed and hewn are past participles of hew. // The senator has always hewed closely to the party line. // The explorers hewed logs for building cabins. See the entry > Examples: "The play hewed closely to the original script, with a few splashes of local color." — Chelsea Edgar, The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 2025 Did you know? Without context, the contrasting meanings of hew may seem arbitrary. What does shaping something with an ax have to do with conforming or adhering to something? If you're not a lumberjack, that's okay, we'll explain. The connection lies in the woodworking phrase "hew to the line," where line refers to the mark along the length of a log indicating where to chop in order to shape a beam. "Hewing to the line," literally, is cutting along the mark—adhering to it—until the side of the log is squared. In the 1800s, "hew to the line" was used figuratively as half of the idiom "hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may," to advise someone to stay true to a course of action, whatever the consequences may be. Over time the latter half of the phrase has been, well, hewn off.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 3, 2025 is: snark • SNAHRK • noun Snark is an informal word that refers to an attitude or expression of mocking irreverence and sarcasm. // The stand-up comedian's set was full of snark about current events, which had the audience rolling in the aisles. See the entry > Examples: “With snark and whimsy, [Zelda] Williams and the screenwriter Diablo Cody … put a playfully macabre spin on the Frankenstein legend that doubles as a subversive exploration of the universal desire to be loved and understood.” — Erik Piepenburg, The New York Times, 16 Aug. 2024 Did you know? Credit for snark is often given to Lewis Carroll, on the basis of his having written a poem with this word in the title, back in the 1870s. The modern snark, however, is a back-formation (“a word formed by subtraction of a real or supposed affix from an already existing longer word”), a class of words that includes burgle and back-stab. It comes from taking the longer word snarky and subtracting the -y. Snarky emerged in English around the turn of the 20th century, initially with the meaning of “snappish, crotchety,” and then later took on the sense of “sarcastic, impertinent, or irreverent in tone or manner.” The noun snark is a much more recent addition to the language, arising in the 1990s. It was preceded by the verb snark, “to make an irreverent or sarcastic comment, to say something snarky,” which dates to the late 1980s.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 2, 2025 is: effusive • ih-FYOO-siv • adjective Someone or something described as effusive is expressing or showing a lot of emotion or enthusiasm. // Jay positively glowed as effusive compliments on the meal echoed around the table. See the entry > Examples: "More recently, Billboard ranked Grande, who also writes and produces her own work, high on its list of the greatest pop stars of the 21st century. ... Rolling Stone has been similarly effusive, praising 'a whistle tone that rivals Mariah Carey's in her prime.'" — Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Feb. 2025 Did you know? English speakers have used effusive to describe excessive outpourings since the 17th century. Its oldest and still most common sense relates to the expression of abundant emotion or enthusiasm, but in the 1800s, geologists adopted a specific sense characterizing flowing lava, or hardened rock formed from flowing lava. Effusive can be traced, via the Medieval Latin adjective effūsīvus ("generating profusely, lavish"), to the Latin verb effundere ("to pour out"), which itself comes from fundere ("to pour") plus a modification of the prefix ex- ("out"). Our verb effuse has the same Latin ancestors. A person effuses when speaking effusively. Liquids can effuse as well, as in "water effusing from a pipe."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 1, 2025 is: cynosure • SYE-nuh-shur • noun A cynosure is a person or thing that attracts a lot of attention or interest. As a proper noun, Cynosure may refer to the North Star or its constellation Ursa Minor. // He was the cynosure of all eyes as he walked into the room. See the entry > Examples: "Look at any picture of Kashmir and you'll understand why it is called heaven on earth. And Srinagar, framed by the majestic Zabarwan Mountains, is the cynosure of all travel itineraries, offering a mix of breathtaking landscapes, rich culture, and spirituality." — Mallika Bhagat, Times Now (Mumbai, India), 17 Dec. 2024 Did you know? Ancient mariners noted that all the stars in the heavens seemed to revolve around a particular star, and they relied on that star to guide their navigation. The constellation that this bright star appears in is known to English speakers today as Ursa Minor, or the Little Dipper, but the Ancient Greeks called it Kynósoura, a term that comes from a phrase meaning "dog's tail." Kynósoura passed into Latin and Middle French, becoming cynosure. When English speakers adopted the term in the 16th century, they used it as a name for both the constellation and the star (which is also known as the North Star or Polaris) and also to identify a guide of any kind. By the 17th century, cynosure was also being used figuratively for anything or anyone that, like the North Star, is the focus of attention or observation.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 31, 2025 is: penchant • PEN-chunt • noun Penchant refers to a strong liking for something, or a strong tendency to behave in a certain way. It is usually used with for. // My penchant for mathematics helped me become an engineer. See the entry > Examples: "Sly Lives! is exceptionally strong in its attention to musical detail—even more than Questlove's previous cinematic effort, the Academy Award–winning Summer of Soul, Sly Lives! feels like a film made by a great musician. The film's interviewees offer illuminating ruminations on Sly's vocal arrangements, including his penchant for switching back and forth between unison vocal parts and harmonized ones ..." — Jack Hamilton, Slate, 13 Feb. 2025 Did you know? English has multiple p-words that imply a strong instinct or liking for something, including propensity and proclivity, but to keep things precise, penchant is the proper word for implying a pronounced, persistent taste in a person ("a penchant for pretty pendants") or a predominant predilection for performing particular actions ("a penchant for petting penguins"). Penchant traces back all the way to the Latin verb pendere, meaning "to weigh," but is more immediately preceded in English by the French word penchant, from the present participle of pencher, meaning "to incline."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 30, 2025 is: untoward • un-TOH-erd • adjective Untoward is a formal word that describes something that is improper or inappropriate, or that is adverse or unfavorable. // The medication is safe and effective, with no known untoward side effects. // The investigation found that nothing untoward had happened at the event. See the entry > Examples: “You might be thinking that the best course of action would be to make sure that any such generative AI is completely unable to spew out any kind of untoward content. Just do whatever ... AI trickery is needed to ensure that the good stuff is emitted and the bad stuff is kept under lock and key. ... The rub is that trying to simultaneously have generative AI that appears to be fluent and capable in composing natural language and yet also can refrain from emitting the bad stuff is a lot harder of a problem than you might assume.” — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 1 May 2023 Did you know? For centuries, the adjective toward described “forward-moving” youngsters, the kind who showed promise and were open to listening to their elders. The adjective then came to mean amiable or obliging. The opposite of this now-obsolete sense of toward is froward, meaning “disobedient.” Froward has fallen out of common use, but thankfully another toward antonym, untoward, obliged in picking up the slack. In addition to describing people or things that are “difficult to guide, manage, or work with,” untoward today is applied to that which is unfavorable or adverse, as well as to things that are inappropriate or in bad taste.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 29, 2025 is: elucidate • ih-LOO-suh-dayt • verb To elucidate something is to make it clear or easy to understand. // The writer elucidates complex medical findings for a general audience. See the entry > Examples: “Building flexible classrooms gives the building a lifespan beyond one class or even one era of pedagogy, which, as [Lee] Fertig elucidates, are sure to evolve.” — Maya Chawla, Architectural Digest, 25 Sep. 2024 Did you know? In 1974, the discovery of a remarkably intact Australopithecus skeleton elucidated a key moment in human evolution. She was famously nicknamed Lucy in reference to the Beatles' “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” but we'd still love Lucy were it simply an homage to the light she shed. You see, the Latin luc- or lux puts the “light” in many English utterances (including the name Lucy). Take, for instance, lucent (“glowing with light”), luculent (“clear in thought or expression”), luciferous (“bringing light or insight”), lucid (“clear, sane, intelligible”), and elucidate (“to make clear or understandable”). Those last two words come from the Latin lucidus, which literally translates to “lucid.” Lucidus, in turn, comes from the verb lucēre, meaning “to shine.” Elucidating, therefore, can be thought of as the figurative equivalent of shining a light on something to make it easier to see.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 28, 2025 is: derelict • DAIR-uh-likt • adjective Derelict is a formal word that describes something that is no longer cared for or used by anyone. It can also describe someone who is negligent or who fails to do what needs to be done. // The kids made sure to stay away from the spooky derelict houses in the neighborhood on Halloween. // The officers were charged with being derelict in their duty. See the entry > Examples: "In a movie that spends most of its time confined to the disorienting guts of a derelict spaceship, tracking Kenneth's de-evolution from Kennedy wannabe to a used car salesman version of Colonel Kurtz is often the only moral compass we have to find our way towards a better tomorrow." — David Ehrlich, Indie Wire, 15 Feb. 2025 Did you know? The Latin verb relinquere, meaning "to leave behind," left English with a number of words, including derelict. Something derelict has been left behind, or at least appears that way. In another sense, someone who is derelict leaves behind or neglects their duties or obligations. Another descendant of relinquere is relinquish, meaning "to leave behind," "to give up," or "to release." Relic also ultimately comes from relinquere. Relics, in the original sense of the term, are things treasured for their association with a saint or martyr—that is, objects saints and martyrs left behind. Relinquere also gives English its name for the containers or shrines which hold relics, reliquary.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 27, 2025 is: archetype • AHR-kih-type • noun Archetype refers to someone or something that is seen to be a perfect example. It is also a word for the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies. // The college's most popular philosophy professor is the archetype of the preoccupied academic, complete with the messy desk, disheveled hair, and brilliant theories. // The film is considered a sci-fi archetype for its pioneering use of special effects and prosthetics to depict an alien world. See the entry > Examples: “One of the most notable features of folktales, fairy tales, myths, and legends are their simplicity. These stories, many of them passed down to us across generations, are compelling because of the recognizable archetypes they incorporate (the evil stepmother, the dutiful daughter, the greedy king, etc.), their straightforward moral arcs, and their use of magic and transformation as catalysts for the plot.” — Gina Chung, LitHub.com, 13 Mar. 2024 Did you know? In her 2024 book Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, author Naomi Klein writes that “the doppelganger archetype has appeared across time to explore issues of life and death, the body versus the soul, the ego versus the id …” Klein doesn't mean that the same double, evil twin, or changeling keeps popping up throughout history, of course, but that the original concept of a doppelganger has served as a pattern, model, or template for writers to use in different ways, each supplying it with their own imagined details. Archetype's origins are in two Greek words: the verb archein, meaning “to begin,” and the noun typos, meaning “type.” Since its debut in English in the mid-1500s, archetype has taken on uses specific to the ideas of Plato, John Locke, and Carl Jung, but in everyday prose, archetype is most commonly used to mean “a perfect example,” as in “Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is considered an archetype of doppelganger fiction.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 26, 2025 is: flippant • FLIP-unt • adjective Something described as flippant, such as behavior or a comment, is lacking in proper respect or seriousness. // The celebrity made a flippant remark when questioned about the scandal. See the entry > Examples: "While the show seems to take a flippant attitude to the neatly packaged solutions offered by wellness tourism, I'm curious to see what it makes of these treatments' underlying Buddhist and Hindu philosophies." — Kate Gordon, The Case Western Reserve Observer, 28 Feb. 2025 Did you know? Consider the spatula, humble friend to many a cook: admire the pliancy with which it flips pancakes, eggs, your more wieldy cuts of meat. We're not being flippant—that is, facetious or smart-alecky—utensils are important, and spatulas are particularly useful for understanding the origins of flippant. Flippant is believed to come from the English verb flip, which, in turn, is a supposed imitation of the sound of something (say, a flapjack) flipping. The earliest uses of flippant described flexible things (like a spatula) or nimble, spry people, capable of moving this way and that with ease. Soon enough, flippant began to be used not only for people fluent in their movements, but those whose words flow easily. To be this kind of flippant was once a good thing; however, as people who speak freely can sometimes speak more freely than propriety permits, English users eventually flipped the script on flippant, and the positive sense fell into disuse, bending to the "disrespectful" sense we know today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 25, 2025 is: hobbit • HAH-bit • noun A hobbit is a member of a fictitious peaceful and friendly race of small humanlike creatures that dwell underground. // The story was filled with all sorts of imaginary people, including hobbits. See the entry > Examples: "Hobbits were no part of Tolkien's original plan. They entered rather late and through a side door, as the unexpected central characters in a children's story, The Hobbit, which Tolkien invented for his own children but which found an immediate and lasting worldwide audience. And of which The Lord of the Rings was the commissioned, long-awaited and trebly successful sequel." — Verlyn Flieger, LitHub.com, 24 June 2025 Did you know? "What is a hobbit?" wrote J.R.R. Tolkien in the 1937 fantasy novel that introduced Mr. Bilbo Baggins. The author then answered himself: "They are (or were) little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. ... There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along ..." Tolkien tells us that hobbits "are inclined to be fat," and that they "dress in bright colours"; they "have good-natured faces, and deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner)." Tolkien, a professional linguist who taught at Oxford, coined the word hobbit (and many other terms—in fact, a whole new language) for The Hobbit and for his enormously popular three-part novel The Lord of the Rings.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 25, 2025 is: hobbit • HAH-bit • noun A hobbit is a member of a fictitious peaceful and friendly race of small humanlike creatures that dwell underground. // The story was filled with all sorts of imaginary people, including hobbits. See the entry > Examples: "Hobbits were no part of Tolkien's original plan. They entered rather late and through a side door, as the unexpected central characters in a children's story, The Hobbit, which Tolkien invented for his own children but which found an immediate and lasting worldwide audience. And of which The Lord of the Rings was the commissioned, long-awaited and trebly successful sequel." — Verlyn Flieger, LitHub.com, 24 June 2024 Did you know? "What is a hobbit?" wrote J.R.R. Tolkien in the 1937 fantasy novel that introduced Mr. Bilbo Baggins. The author then answered himself: "They are (or were) little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. ... There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along ..." Tolkien tells us that hobbits "are inclined to be fat," and that they "dress in bright colours"; they "have good-natured faces, and deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner)." Tolkien, a professional linguist who taught at Oxford, coined the word hobbit (and many other terms—in fact, a whole new language) for The Hobbit and for his enormously popular three-part novel The Lord of the Rings.