Podcasts about Dictionary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 29, 2025 is: nefarious • nih-FAIR-ee-us • adjective Nefarious is a formal word that describes something as evil or immoral. // Authorities suspect that the recovered materials were going to be used for nefarious purposes. See the entry > Examples: “Introducing characters like Gorilla Grodd on DC Crime would help familiarize audiences with these figures before they potentially receive an expanded role in another project. Perhaps each season could focus on a different villain, highlighting their nefarious actions.” — Chris Agar, comicbook.com, 16 Nov. 2025 Did you know? If you need a fancy word to describe someone who's up to no good, nefarious has got you (and them) covered. It's also handy for characterizing the “no good” such a dastardly devil gets up to, as in “a nefarious business/plot/deed.” Nefarious is most often used for someone or something that is flagrantly wicked or corrupt—it's more applicable to the mustache-twirling supervillain than the morally gray antihero. In other words, there's no question that a nefarious scheme, or schemer, is not right. Etymologically, this makes perfect sense: nefarious can be traced back to the Latin noun nefas, meaning “crime,” which in turn combines ne- (“not”) and fas, meaning “right” or “divine law.” It is one of very few English words with this root, accompanied only by the likes of nefariousness and the thoroughly obscure nefast (“wicked”).

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3403: Dan Erickson shares five thoughtful strategies to help curb impulsive spending by encouraging a shift from emotional wants to practical needs. His advice empowers listeners to slow down, reflect on true priorities, and make purchasing decisions with greater clarity and purpose. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://nosidebar.com/purchase/ Quotes to ponder: "Wanting is an emotional response to being unsatisfied with what you already have." "When we spend money, we have to work harder and longer to recoup our loss." "Walking gives you time to consider the pros and cons of your motivations to buy." Episode references: Dictionary.com definition of "want": https://www.dictionary.com/browse/want Dictionary.com definition of "need": https://www.dictionary.com/browse/need Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 28, 2025 is: yen • YEN • noun A yen is a strong desire, urge, or craving for something. // After dinner, the family went out for ice cream to satisfy their yen for something sweet. // Students with a yen to travel should consider studying abroad. See the entry > Examples: “If you've got a yen for succulent, right-off-the-boat Maine sea scallops, now is the time to get them.” — Stephen Rappaport, The Bangor Daily News, 26 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Although yen suggests no more than a strong desire these days (as in “a yen for a beach vacation”), at one time someone with a yen was in deep trouble: the first meaning of yen, used in the late 19th century, was an intense craving for opium. The word comes from yīn-yáhn, a combination of yīn, meaning “opium,” and yáhn, “craving,” in the Chinese language used in the province of Guangdong. In English, the Chinese syllables were translated as yen-yen, and eventually shortened to yen.

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3403: Dan Erickson shares five thoughtful strategies to help curb impulsive spending by encouraging a shift from emotional wants to practical needs. His advice empowers listeners to slow down, reflect on true priorities, and make purchasing decisions with greater clarity and purpose. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://nosidebar.com/purchase/ Quotes to ponder: "Wanting is an emotional response to being unsatisfied with what you already have." "When we spend money, we have to work harder and longer to recoup our loss." "Walking gives you time to consider the pros and cons of your motivations to buy." Episode references: Dictionary.com definition of "want": https://www.dictionary.com/browse/want Dictionary.com definition of "need": https://www.dictionary.com/browse/need Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are several words-of-year for 2025: Oxford has "rage bait" after last year's "brain rot." Webster has "slop." Dictionary.com has "67," which is a diverse meme. This year has continued the 2024 trend of a planet spinning much faster than has been recorded before, triggering debates about removing a second from the clock, i.e., the negative leap second. 2025 also brought us, as evidenced by the online slop of 67, which results in perpetual rage bait and a variety of increasingly dumber conspiracies. Tonight, Ryan Gable fills in for Clyde Lewis and talks with the founder of Reverse Speech, David Oates. Listen to Ground Zero, M-F, 7-10pm, pacific on groundzeroplus.com.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 27, 2025 is: apropos • ap-ruh-POH • preposition Apropos is used as a preposition to mean "with regard to." It is frequently used in the phrase "apropos of." // Sean interrupted our conversation about politics and, apropos of nothing, asked who we thought would win the basketball game. As an adjective, apropos describes something that is suitable or appropriate, as in "an apropos nickname." See the entry > Examples: "Once, at the height of COVID, I dropped off a book at the home of Werner Herzog. I was an editor at the time and was trying to assign him a review, so I drove up to his gate in Laurel Canyon, and we had the briefest of masked conversations. Within 30 seconds, it turned strange. 'Do you have a dog? A little dog?' he asked me, staring out at the hills of Los Angeles, apropos of nothing. He didn't wait for an answer. 'Then be careful of the coyotes,' Herzog said." — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 8 Jan. 2025 Did you know? Apropos wears its ancestry like a badge—or perhaps more fittingly a beret. From the French phrase à propos, meaning "to the purpose," the word's emphasis lands on its last syllable, which ends in a silent "s": ap-ruh-POH. Apropos typically functions as an adjective describing what is suitable or appropriate ("an apropos comment"), or as a preposition (with or without of) meaning "with regard to," as in "apropos (of) the decision, implementation will take some time." The phrase "apropos of nothing" is used to signal that what follows does not relate to any previous topic.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 26, 2025 is: grandiose • gran-dee-OHSS • adjective Grandiose is usually used disapprovingly to describe something that seems impressive or is intended to be impressive, but that is either not possible or practical. // The long-vacant historic building has finally been purchased, and the developer has announced grandiose plans to make it the center of a new theater district. See the entry > Examples: “Henry [VIII] was a leader known for his grandiose presentation, a love of dramatic rhetoric and self-promotion, and a fondness for blaming others. He carefully curated his image, issuing official portraits and closely managing public appearances. His reign concentrated power in one man and his obsessions.” — Philippa Gregory, LitHub.com, 29 Oct. 2025 Did you know? When it comes to bigness, there's grand and then there's grandiose. Both words can be used to describe something impressive in size, scope, or effect, but while grand may lend its noun a bit of dignity (i.e., “we had a grand time”), grandiose often implies a whiff of pretension. The difference between a grand plan for the city park and a grandiose one, for example, might be the difference between a tasteful fountain and a garden full of topiaries cut in the shapes of 19th century literary figures. So if you're choosing between the two, a helpful mnemonic might be that the extra letters in grandiose suggest that one's ideas, claims, promises, schemes, dreams—you get the idea—are a bit extra.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 25, 2025 is: noel • noh-EL • noun When capitalized, Noel refers to Christmas or the Christmas season. Uncapitalized, noel refers to a Christmas carol. // We were greeted at the door by a group of carolers singing noels. // Every year we send our family Christmas cards with our photo enclosed wishing everyone a joyous Noel. See the entry > Examples: “The meeting began with a touch of holiday spirit as members of the Woodland Park High School Madrigals sang three selections. The first was a Noel song with a medieval/renaissance feel that was well matched to their festive costumes. They followed with the popular ‘Carol of the Bells' and ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas.'” — Doug Fitzgerald, The Pikes Peak (Colorado) Courier, 9 Dec. 2024 Did you know? English speakers borrowed noel from the French word noël, which is also used for both the Christmas holiday and a Christmas carol. It can be traced further back to the Latin word natalis, which can mean “birthday” as a noun or “of or relating to birth” as an adjective. (The English adjective natal has the same meaning and is also an offspring of natalis.) Noels were being sung in Latin and French for centuries before English-speakers started using the word to refer to Christmas carols in the 18th century. An early use of noel (spelled Nowel) to mean “Christmas” can be found in the text of the late 14th-century Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Dictionaries were once bestsellers, but between the internet and artificial intelligence, its role in our culture has changed. Stefan Fatsis is out with a new book called Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) The Modern Dictionary, which documents this shift. In today's episode, he speaks with NPR's Don Gonyea about embedding with the publisher of Merriam Webster, the history of lexicography, and what he anticipates for the dictionary's future.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 24, 2025 is: hark back • HAHRK-BAK • verb Harking back can be about turning back to an earlier topic or circumstance, as in "a storyteller harking back to his youth," or it can be about going back to something as an origin or source, as in "a style that harks back to the turn of the previous century." // The dinner conversation harked back to the lunch debate over what counts as a traditional holiday meal. // The diner's interior decor harks back to the 1950s. See the entry > Examples: "The single harks back to Chenier's heyday when his music was produced on 45s and put into jukeboxes, says [Maureen] Loughran." — Alicia Ault, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 June 2025 Did you know? Hark, a very old word meaning "to listen," was used as a cry in hunting. The master of the hunt might cry "Hark! Forward!" or "Hark! Back!" The cries became set phrases, both as nouns and verbs. Thus, a "hark back" was a retracing of a route by dogs and hunters, and to "hark back" was to turn back along the path. From its use in hunting, the verb acquired its current figurative meanings concerned with returning to the past. The variants hearken and harken (also very old words meaning "to listen") are also used, with and without back, as synonyms of hark back.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 23, 2025 is: bespoke • bih-SPOHK • adjective Bespoke describes something that is custom-made—that is, made to fit the needs or requirements of a particular person. // As a tailor, Lana specialized in crafting bespoke clothing for her clients, each piece unique and suited to their tastes. See the entry > Examples: “The vehicles are bespoke machines with every little detail thought of, from embroidered seats to custom floor mats to retro paint jobs.” — Charlie Berrey, SlashGear.com, 10 Nov. 2025 Did you know? In the English language of yore, the verb bespeak had various meanings, including “to speak,” “to accuse,” and “to complain.” In the 16th century, bespeak acquired another meaning: “to order.” It is from that sense that we get the adjective bespoke, referring to clothes and other things that are ordered before they are made. Bespoke has enjoyed a spike in usage in recent years, perhaps due to consumer trends that champion all things artisanal over those that are prefab.

Send me a Text Message!In this episode, we are going to talk about favor. That's an interesting word isn't it? Favor. It's used multiple times in the Christmas stories. When we think of the word favor, it's usually used in a sentence like this, "Hey would you do me a favor?" When we ask someone to do us a favor we're saying, "You don't owe me. I don't necessarily deserve this, haven't earned it, but I'm wondering if you would do it anyway. Do me a favor." Often that's the question behind our prayers is, "God would you please do me a favor." The Dictionary suggests that favor is kindness beyond what is due or usual. It makes me think that perhaps the a good two word description of Christmas is "God's Favor." As we take a peak at Mary the mother of Jesus, we can pray, "God would you do me a favor?" 

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 22, 2025 is: temporize • TEM-puh-ryze • verb To temporize is to avoid making a decision or giving a definite answer in order to have more time. // Pressured by voters on both sides of the issue, the congressman temporized. See the entry > Examples: "The question is, Did you eat the last piece of pie? And the politician who ate the last piece of pie doesn't want to say yes, because they might get in trouble. Doesn't want to say no, because that's an outright lie. So they waver, they equivocate, they temporize, they put things in context, and they talk like a politician." — David Frum, The Atlantic (The David Frum Show podcast), 21 May 2025 Did you know? Temporize comes from the Middle French word temporiser, which in turn likely traces back via Medieval Latin temporizāre, "to delay," to the Latin noun tempus, meaning "time." Tempus is also the root of such words as tempo, contemporary, and temporal. If you need to buy some time, you might resort to temporizing, but you probably won't win admiration for doing so, as the word typically carries a negative connotation. For instance, a political leader faced with a difficult issue might temporize by talking vaguely about possible solutions without actually doing anything. The point of such temporizing is to avoid taking definitive—and possibly unpopular—action, in hopes that the problem will somehow go away.

Fee Greening, a dip pen and ink illustrator, is known for her experimental approach to art, rooted in medieval and Gothic design. Sitting down with Paddy, she reflects on the journey that shaped her distinctive style, from her youthful immersion in Gothic and grunge aesthetics while touring with her partner's band, to a return to the coast, where the rhythms of nature and the richness of traditional folklore began to leave their mark on her work.Recently, Fee brought her vision to life in her first illustrated book, A Dictionary of Fairies. She talks openly about how embracing creative freedom and prioritising self-expression over conventional “tastefulness” has developed her work in new and exciting ways.Learn about the colours featured in each episode hereSee the colours of Fee's life hereFollow Fee on Instagram hereFollow us on Instagram here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 21, 2025 is: hibernaculum • hye-ber-NAK-yuh-lum • noun Hibernaculum (plural hibernacula) refers to a shelter occupied during the winter by a dormant animal, such as an insect, snake, bat, or marmot. // Local scientists are studying the longevity of bats who use bridges and other aboveground hibernacula versus that of bats who roost all winter in subterranean caves. See the entry > Examples: “Adult female bees begin looking for a hibernation location, or hibernaculum, in the fall. If the gardener is planning to deadhead any spent flowers from the summer, aim to prune stems at varying heights (8" to 24") as a nesting site for these bees. Many perennial flowers and shrubs have pithy stems that will serve as a good location. A few common Oklahoma garden plants that are good candidates include roses, purple coneflower, salvia, bee balm, and sunflowers.” — Sherry Clark, The Shawnee (Oklahoma) News-Star, 8 Oct. 2025 Did you know? If you're afraid of snakes or bats, you probably won't enjoy thinking about hibernacula, where hundreds, even thousands, of these creatures might be passing the wintry months. Other creatures also use hibernacula, though many of these tend to be less crowded. The word hibernaculum has been used for the burrow of a woodchuck, for instance, as well as for a cozy caterpillar cocoon attached to a wintry twig, and for the spot in which a frog has buried itself in mud. Hibernacula are all around us and have been around for a long, long time, but we have only called them such since the late 1700s, making hibernaculum only a few decades older than the more familiar verb hibernate. Both words come from the Latin verb hibernare, meaning “to pass the winter,” which in turn comes from hibernus, meaning “winter.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 20, 2025 is: decorous • DECK-er-us • adjective Decorous is a formal adjective used to describe an attitude or behavior characterized by propriety and good taste. // The ceremony was conducted with a decorous solemnity. See the entry > Examples: “... Elizabeth reveals, later, that she felt she never belonged to the decorous world of parties and corsets and curls and feathers on the head ...” — Ryan Lattanzio, Indie Wire, 13 Oct. 2025 Did you know? One of the earliest recorded uses of decorous appears in a book titled The Rules of Civility (1671): “It is not decorous to look in the glass, to comb, brush, or do any thing of that nature to ourselves, whilst the said person be in the Room.” This rule of thumb may be a bit outdated; like many behaviors once deemed unbecoming, public primping is unlikely to offend in modern times. Though mores shift, decorous lives on to describe timeless courtesies like polite speech, proper attire, and (ahem) covering one's cough.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 19, 2025 is: veracity • vuh-RASS-uh-tee • noun Veracity is a formal word that can refer to truth or accuracy, or to the quality of being truthful or honest. // The jury seemed not to doubt the veracity of the witness. See the entry > Examples: "Raise your hand if you've been questioning the veracity of real events, news stories and images posted on social media lately. It used to be we'd have to tiptoe around a minefield of hoaxes only once a year, on April 1. But thanks to the proliferation of misinformation spawned by artificial intelligence, every day on the internet is an exercise in judgment and media literacy." — Laura Yuen, The Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, 9 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Veracity has been in use since the early 17th century, and we can honestly tell you that it comes from the Latin adjective vērāx, "truthful," which in turn comes from the earlier verus, "true." Verus also gives us the words verity ("the quality of being true"), verify ("to establish the truth of"), and verisimilitude ("the appearance of truth"), among other words. In addition, vērāx is the root of the word veraciousness, a somewhat rarer synonym and cousin of veracity.

Dictionary.com's word of the year isn't really a word — it's a number that went viral on TikTok. The selection caused a ruckus among lexicographers. But editors argued that social media is a major force in creating new words these days, and the whole point of choosing a word of the year is to “reveal the stories we tell about ourselves and how we've changed.”It's no surprise to author Stefan Fatsis, who chronicles the rise of the modern dictionary in his new book, “Unabridged: The Thrill of and Threat to the Modern Dictionary.” He joined Kerri Miller on this week's Big Books and Bold Ideas to nerd out over words and to talk about the power the humble dictionary has to shape our lives. “Language bubbles up from below,” Fatsis says. “For at least the last 60 years, the dictionary's function is to be descriptive, to reflect back on culture the way we humans use language — as opposed to prescriptive, the belief for many generations, which was that dictionaries should tell people how to use language.”Fatsis also talks about his time being embedded as a lexicographer-in-training at America's most famous dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, and how the internet and AI threaten this most foundational of books. Guest:Stefan Fatsis is a journalist and the author of many books. He's also responsible for defining 15 words in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, including a Kerri Miller favorite — sheeple. His new book is “Unabridged: The Thrill of and Threat to the Modern Dictionary.”Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 18, 2025 is: jaunty • JAWN-tee • adjective Something described as jaunty is lively in manner or appearance. Jaunty can also describe something, such as an article of clothing, that suggests a lively and confident quality. // The server whistled a jaunty tune as she wiped the tables and set out fresh flowers in preparation for the day's diners. See the entry > Examples: “He stood at the front of the room and announced that we would begin with a quiz, which we all failed because the quiz was over material that we were supposed to have covered during the last class. When he handed the quizzes back to us after the break, he did so in a frenetic, almost jaunty way, running up and down the aisles and announcing our grades—‘Zero, zero, zero'—loudly before tossing the quizzes down in front of us ...” — Lori Ostlund, Are You Happy?: Stories, 2025 Did you know? Does throwing on a jaunty hat make someone appear more genteel? Maybe, but something more definitive links the words: both jaunty and genteel come from the French word gentil, meaning “of aristocratic birth.” Genteel was borrowed first to describe things associated with aristocratic people. Jaunty joined the language just a few years later in the mid-17th century as a synonym of stylish and also as a synonym for genteel. While genteel has maintained its associations of propriety and high social class, jaunty has traipsed into less stuffy territory as a descriptor of tunes and hats and other things that suggest lively confidence.

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It was November of 2016. North Hollywood's El Portal Theatre was visited by a merry cast of talented voice actors, musicians, and audience members. There was chocolate (graciously provided by the delicious El Buen Cacao) and a wintry faerie who, with an audience volunteer, would announce each date to start off the story. We recorded twenty-five short, holiday-themed stories that night and the 2016 Audio Advent Calendar was born. It was too good to hear just once, so we reissued it the following year. And now it's back again, with its cheerful silliness and heartfelt hope! We hope you enjoy it again or anew, as much as we did making it! It has never been more clear that looking at each other without prejudice would be a very useful thing to a society struggling to hang on to its society-ness. Dictionary dot com defines it thus: A highly structured system of human organization for large-scale community living that normally furnishes protection, continuity, security, and a national identity for its members. Please visit LifeLabNotes.com for information about each date's story, its writer and performers, and the musicians who added their magic.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 17, 2025 is: espouse • ih-SPOWZ • verb To espouse an ideology, belief, etc., is to take it up and support it as a cause. Espouse is usually encountered in formal speech and writing. // The article explores some of the lesser-known viewpoints espoused by the charismatic leader. See the entry > Examples: “Crammed into a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village, they [Yoko Ono and John Lennon] immersed themselves in the city's counterculture, absorbing progressive politics whenever they weren't glued to the television set. Lennon's celebrity secured the duo a large platform to espouse these ideas ...” — Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Pitchfork, 11 Oct. 2025 Did you know? As you might guess, the words espouse and spouse are hitched, both coming from the Latin verb spondēre, meaning “to promise” or “to betroth.” In fact, the two were once completely interchangeable, with each serving as a noun meaning “a newly married person” or “a partner in marriage” and also as a verb meaning “to marry.” Their semantic separation began when the noun espouse fell out of use. Nowadays, espouse is almost exclusively encountered as a verb used in the figuratively extended sense “to commit to and support as a cause.”

Show #2561 Show Notes: Religious motivated attacks  The Statistics on Religiously Motivated Terrorist Attacks Are Staggering Oppressed: https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/Oppressed Possession: https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/possession Commission: https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/commission Spiritual realm: https://www.bing.com/search?q=what+does+the+bible+say+about+the+spiritual+realm&cvid=3256f571322a41edbf705b62c4702394&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKgYIABBFGDkyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQ6wcYQNIBCTEzOTI0ajBqNKgCALACAA&FORM=ANAB01&PC=ASTS Romans 14: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2014&version=KJV Luke 17: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2017&version=KJV Picture of aquarium  Cute Boy Looking On […]

We’re still reeling from the shock murder of filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele. The LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman has charged their son Nick Reiner with two counts of first-degree murder, carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison, with possibility of the death penalty. Federal prosecutors arrested four SoCal people who are part of a group called Turtle Island Liberation Front. They were plotting a New Year’s Eve terrorist attack in which they planned simultaneous bombings across LA as people enjoyed the festivities. Dictionary.com’s word of the year is six-seven. There are so many words of the year, including “parasocial,” “fatigue” and slop.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 16, 2025 is: conversant • kun-VER-sunt • adjective Conversant, usually used in the phrase "conversant with," describes someone who has knowledge of or experience with something. // The ideal candidate for the sommelier position will have expert knowledge of the various wines served in the restaurant and be conversant with the rich world of viniculture. See the entry > Examples: "The advantages of franchise expansion are obvious. These shows benefit from name recognition and a dedicated audience, as well as writers, producers and crew members already conversant with that audience's expectations." — Alexis Soloski, The New York Times, 6 July 2025 Did you know? The adjectives conversant and conversational both descend from the Latin verb conversari, meaning "to associate with." Conversant dates to the Middle Ages; an early meaning of the word was simply "having familiar association." One way to associate with others is to have a conversation with them—in other words, to talk. For a short time in the 19th century conversant could mean "relating to or suggesting conversation," but for the most part that meaning stayed with conversational while conversant went in a different direction. Today, conversant is sometimes used, especially in the United States, with the meaning "able to talk in a foreign language," as in "she is conversant in several languages," but it is more often associated with knowledge or familiarity, as in "conversant with the issues."

If there's one thing more painful than seeing Canada lose to the Americans in hockey, it's seeing promising Canadian companies pull up stakes and move south of the border. Canadian editors are in a dictionary dispute with the Carney government.

"Rage bait." "Parasocial." "6-7." Ben Zimmer, linguist, language columnist, and chair of the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society, discusses what the words of the year chosen by various dictionaries like Oxford and Dictionary.com, and what the choices say about our language and culture. To submit your nomination for word of the year to the American Dialect Society, go to https://americandialect.org.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 15, 2025 is: dreidel • DRAY-dul • noun A dreidel is a 4-sided toy marked with Hebrew letters and spun like a top in a game of chance. The game, played by children especially at Hanukkah, is also called dreidel. // All the kids in the family look forward to playing dreidel together during Hanukkah. See the entry > Examples: “The Jewish tradition has always been syncretic, adapting and responding to the culture around it, he [Rabbi Steven Philp] said. Hanukkah is ‘a great example of this,' Philp said, noting that the holiday's traditions—like spinning the dreidel, eating latkes or potato pancakes, and munching on ... jelly-filled doughnuts—are customs that were borrowed from neighboring cultures over time.” — Kate Heather, The Chicago Sun-Times, 25 Dec. 2024 Did you know? If your dreidel is spinning beneath the glow of the menorah, it's probably the Jewish festival of lights known as Hanukkah. The holiday celebrates the miracle of a small amount of oil—enough for one day—burning for eight days in the Temple of Jerusalem. And though it's a toy, the dreidel's design is very much an homage: on each of its four sides is inscribed a Hebrew letter—nun, gimel, he, and shin—which together stand for Nes gadol haya sham, meaning “A great miracle happened there.” (In Israel, the letter pe, short for po, “here,” is often used instead of shin). In the game of dreidel, each letter bears its own significance: the dreidel is spun and depending on which letter is on top when it lands, the player's currency, or gelt, is added to or taken from the pot. Nun means the player does nothing; gimel means the player gets everything; he means the player gets half; and shin means the player adds to the pot. Wherever you land on holiday traditions, we wish you words of gimel: gratitude, grub, and, of course, gaiety.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 14, 2025 is: multitudinous • mul-tuh-TOO-duh-nus • adjective Multitudinous is a formal word with meanings that relate to multitudes. It can mean “existing in a great multitude”—that is, “very many”; or “including a multitude of individuals”; or “existing in or consisting of innumerable elements or aspects.” // The two old friends reminisced about the multitudinous ways in which their lives had changed. // The author's appearance is expected to attract a multitudinous gathering that will fill the auditorium. See the entry > Examples: “Launched as Holton's artistic inquiry into his own Chinese heritage, the project has evolved into a profound examination of family dynamics, migration, and cultural hybridity in contemporary New York, where the American identity is multitudinous.” — Natasha Gural, Forbes, 11 June 2025 Did you know? “I am large, I contain multitudes.” So wrote Walt Whitman in his most celebrated poem, “Song of Myself.” He was expressing his ability to hold within himself contradictory statements, facets, opinions, beliefs, etc. Another, if less poetic, way of saying “I contain multitudes” might be “I am multitudinous,” using the sense of that five-syllable word meaning “existing in or consisting of innumerable elements or aspects.” Multitudinous doesn't have a lot of meanings—three to be exact—but each one concerns, well, a lot. In addition to serving Whitmanesque purposes as noted above, multitudinous is the kind of highly expressive word that you can rely upon when you want something a little more emphatic than plain old numerous, as in “multitudinous possibilities.” Lastly, its original sense—still in use today—is a synonym of populous meaning “including a multitude of individuals,” as in “the multitudinous city.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 13, 2025 is: alleviate • uh-LEE-vee-ayt • verb To alleviate something is to make it less painful, difficult, or severe. Alleviate can also mean "to partially remove or correct." // There's no cure for the common cold, but there are various treatments that may alleviate some of the symptoms. // The new tunnel should alleviate traffic congestion on the bridge. See the entry > Examples: "The funds are meant to alleviate monetary barriers and enhance the fashion industry's talent pipeline." — Rosemary Feitelberg, Footwear News, 30 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Now for a bit of light reading. Alleviate comes from Latin levis, meaning "having little weight." (Levis also gave rise to the English adjective light as in "not heavy.") In its early days during the 16th century, alleviate could mean both "to cause (something) to have less weight" or "to make (something) more tolerable." The literal "make lighter" sense is no longer used, and today only the "relieve, lessen" sense remains. Incidentally, not only is alleviate a synonym of relieve, it's also a cousin: relieve comes from Latin levare ("to raise"), which in turn comes from levis.

The quest to define and canonize new words in American English is as old as the country itself. In the new book "Unabridged: the thrill of (and threat to) the modern dictionary," author Stefan Fatsis explores how that quest has changed in the age of the internet.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 12, 2025 is: waggish • WAG-ish • adjective Waggish describes someone who is silly and playful, and especially someone who displays a mischievous sense of humor. The word can also describe things that such a person might do or possess. // He had a waggish disposition that could irk adults but typically delighted children. // She denied the prank but did so with a waggish smirk that didn't match her disavowal. See the entry > Examples: “[Patricia] Lockwood began her writing life quietly, as a poet. She found her first major audience on Twitter, posting self-proclaimed ‘absurdities' ... that quickly came to define the medium's zany, waggish ethos ...” — Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025 Did you know? One who is waggish acts like a wag. What, then, is a wag? It has nothing to do with a dog's tail; in this case a wag is a clever person prone to joking. Though light-hearted in its use and meaning, the probable source of this particular wag is grim: it is thought to be short for waghalter, an obsolete English word that translates as gallows bird, a gallows bird being someone thought to be deserving of hanging (wag being the familiar wag having to do with movement, and halter referring to a noose). Despite its gloomy origins, waggish is now often associated with humor and playfulness—a wag is a joker, and waggery is merriment or practical joking. Waggish can describe the prank itself as well as the prankster type; the class clown might be said to have a “waggish disposition” or be prone to “waggish antics.”

Show #2558 Show Notes: ‘Discrimination’: https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/discrimination Randy Newman – Short People: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbOLQdCWtag&list=RDnbOLQdCWtag&start_radio=1 Communion Verses: John 6:32-40 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=%20John%206%3A32-40&version=KJV Matthew 26:26-29 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2026%3A26-29&version=KJV Tina Peters pardoned: https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-trump-grants-full-pardon-to-political-prisoner-tina-peters JP Morgan sells Silver short position: https://silvertrade.com/news/precious-metals/silver-news/jp-morgan-sells-entire-200-m-oz-silver-short-position-flips-long-750-m-oz/ Silver prices: https://www.kitco.com/ Dem Representative from […]

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 11, 2025 is: leviathan • luh-VYE-uh-thun • noun Leviathan is a word with literary flair that can refer broadly to something very large and powerful, or more narrowly to a large sea animal, or a totalitarian state having a vast bureaucracy. // Towering leviathans of the forest, giant sequoias often reach heights of more than 200 feet. See the entry > Examples: “These are dim days for the leviathan merchants. The smart whaling families have diversified and will hang onto their wealth for years to come. ... The less smart, those convulsed by the strange desire to continue doing what had always been done, who consider it a divinely issued directive to rid the waves of great fish, now face a problem: the Atlantic whale that built their houses and ships has seemingly wised up ...” — Ethan Rutherford, North Sun, or The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther: A Novel, 2025 Did you know? Old Testament references to a huge sea monster, Leviathan (in Hebrew, Liwyāthān), are thought to have been inspired by an ancient myth in which the god Baal slays a multiheaded sea monster. Leviathan appears in the Book of Psalms as a sea serpent that is killed by God and then given as food to creatures in the wilderness, and it is mentioned in the Book of Job as well. After making a splash in English in the 1300s, the word Leviathan began to be used, capitalized and uncapitalized, for enormous sea creatures both imagined and real—including as a synonym of whale over 100 times in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, as in “ere the Pequod's weedy hull rolls side by side with the barnacled hulls of the leviathan.” Today, leviathan can be used for anything large and powerful, from ships to corporations.

From the school yard to the dictionary, 6-7 has taken the world by storm even though the meaning is still up for interpretation. Greg and Holly discuss as it is solidified into the history books by being made Dictionary.com's word (or phrase) of the year and how In-N-Out burger has had to adjust their order taking process because of the 6-7 chaos.

Show #2558 Show Notes: Who owns Gold and Silver: https://firstnationalbullion.com/level-of-precious-metals-ownership-in-the-us/ 2 Thessalonians 2: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Thessalonians%202&version=KJV ‘Delusion’: https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/delusion Pastors gather in Israel: https://youtu.be/-Ld0m4Ph9KQ?si=yHZ5US9iyydsWuYw 2 Thessalonians 1 (NKJV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20thess%201&version=KJV Amos 8:11 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=amos%208%3A11&version=KJV Muslims in Minnesota: https://sonsoflibertymedia.com/muslim-infiltration-what-the-mainstream-media-means-for-you-not-to-see/ Galatians 4:16 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians%204%3A16&version=KJV

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 10, 2025 is: grift • GRIFT • verb To grift is to use dishonest tricks to illegally take money or property. // The email scammer shamelessly grifted thousands of dollars from unwitting victims. See the entry > Examples: "When the families demanded he return the jewellery he had grifted from them he arranged meetings and then did not show." — Peter Spriggs, The Echo (South Essex, England), 31 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Someone who grifts is a thief, but of a particular sort: they illegally obtain money or property by means of cleverness or deceit, and do not usually resort to physical force or violence. A grifter might be a pickpocket, a crooked gambler, a scammer, or a con artist. The most plausible etymology we have for the murky term is that grift is an early 20th century alteration of graft, a slightly older word which refers to the acquisition of money or property in dishonest or questionable ways. Both grift and graft have noun and verb forms.

Dictionary.com recently announced its word of the year, and your age may determine your reaction to it. The word: 67 (pronounced six-seven). If you're a member of Gen Z or Gen Alpha, you probably get it...and might be smirking that many adults don't understand. According to Dictionary.com, the term experienced a dramatic rise in popularity this summer, and it "has all the hallmarks of brainrot." So what is 67? What is brainrot? Join us for one of our favorite annual traditions as we explore words added to dictionaries and take our new words quiz! In studio: Amanda Chestnut, curator, author, and educator Chris Fanning, deputy director of Writers & Books Linda Sue Park, author ---Connections is supported by listeners like you. Head to our donation page to become a WXXI member today, support the show, and help us close the gap created by the rescission of federal funding.---Connections airs every weekday from noon-2 p.m. Join the conversation with questions or comments by phone at 1-844-295-TALK (8255) or 585-263-9994, email, Facebook or Twitter. Connections is also livestreamed on the WXXI News YouTube channel each day. You can watch live or access previous episodes here.---Do you have a story that needs to be shared? Pitch your story to Connections.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 9, 2025 is: paltry • PAWL-tree • adjective Paltry is a formal word that can describe something that is very small or too small in amount, or something that has little meaning, importance, or worth. // They're offering a paltry salary for the position. // The professor announced they'd finally had enough of the students' paltry excuses for being late to class. See the entry > Examples: "When the witty and wry English fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett interviewed Bill Gates for GQ in 1995, only 39% of Americans had access to a home computer. According to the Pew Research Center, the number who were connected to the internet was a paltry 14%." — Ed Simon, LitHub.com, 25 Nov. 2024 Did you know? Before paltry was an adjective, it was a noun meaning trash. That now-obsolete noun came from palt or pelt, a dialect term referring to a piece of coarse cloth, or more broadly, to trash. The adjective paltry, which dates to the mid-16th century, originally described things considered worthless, or of very low quality, but it's gained a number of meanings over the centuries, none of which are complimentary. A paltry house might be neglected and unfit for occupancy; a paltry trick is a trick that is low-down and dirty; a paltry excuse is a poor one; and a paltry sum is small and insufficient.

Author John Koenig talks about inventing words for those subtle emotions that hitherto had no name. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 8, 2025 is: bravado • bruh-VAH-doh • noun Bravado refers to confident or brave talk or behavior that is intended to impress other people. // She tells the stories of her youthful exploits with enough bravado to invite suspicion that they're embellished a bit. // The crew of climbers scaled the mountain with youthful bravado. See the entry > Examples: "One problem that exists in the whitewater community overall is that people don't always understand the basic elements associated with water and their ignorance and bravado often lead to an incident where someone gets injured or killed." — Tracy Hines, The Durango (Colorado) Herald, 19 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Displays of bravado may be show-offish, daring, reckless, and inconsistent with good sense—take, for example, the spectacular feats of stuntpeople—but when successful, they are still likely to be met with shouts of "bravo!" Celebrities, political leaders, corporate giants, and schoolyard bullies, however, may show a different flavor of bravado: one that suggests an overbearing boldness that comes from arrogance or from being in a position of power. The word bravado originally comes from the Italian adjective bravo, meaning "wild" or "courageous," which English can also thank for the more common brave.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 7, 2025 is: enigmatic • en-ig-MAT-ik • adjective Something or someone described as enigmatic is mysterious and difficult to understand. // The band's lead singer has always been an enigmatic figure, refusing to use social media or even sit for interviews. See the entry > Examples: “For thirty years, Perlefter's carpet hung peacefully on the wall in the museum, delighting visitors with its beauty, its unusual palette, enigmatic motifs and its echoes of four empires.” — Dorothy Armstrong, Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets, 2025 Did you know? The noun enigma can refer to a puzzle, a riddle, a question mark. It's no mystery then, that the adjective enigmatic describes what is hard to solve or figure out. An enigmatic person, for example, may be someone with a bit of je ne sais quoi. What's behind a stranger's enigmatic smile? Your guess is as good as ours. Does the vocabulary in the short story you're reading render it a tad enigmatic? Better grab a dictionary! Both enigma and enigmatic come from the Greek verb ainissesthai, meaning “to speak in riddles.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 6, 2025 is: sensibility • sen-suh-BIL-uh-tee • noun Sensibility is a formal word often used in its plural form to refer someone's personal or cultural approach to what they encounter, as in “the speaker made sure to tailor his speech to the sensibilities of his audience.” Sensibility can also be used for the kind of feelings a person tends to have in general, as well as for the ability to feel and understand emotions. // Many older cartoons feel out of line with modern sensibilities. // She brought an artistic sensibility to every facet of her life, not just her celebrated painting. See the entry > Examples: “[Lady] Gaga's absurdist sensibilities have long been an underrated facet of her work—probably because she's so good at delivering them with a straight face.” — Rich Juzwiak, Pitchfork, 10 Mar. 2025 Did you know? The meanings of sensibility run the gamut from mere sensation to excessive sentimentality, but we're here to help you make sense of it all. In between is a capacity for delicate appreciation, a sense often pluralized. In Jane Austen's books, sensibility is mostly an admirable quality she attributes to, or finds lacking in, her characters: “He had ... a sensibility to what was amiable and lovely” (of Mr. Elliot in Persuasion). In Sense and Sensibility, however, Austen starts out by ascribing to Marianne sensibleness, on the one hand, but an “excess of sensibility” on the other: “Her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation ... she was everything but prudent.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 5, 2025 is: inoculate • ih-NAHK-yuh-layt • verb To inoculate a person or animal is to introduce immunologically active material (such as an antibody or antigen) into them especially in order to treat or prevent a disease. Inoculate can also mean "to introduce (something, such as a microorganism) into a suitable situation for growth," and in figurative use, it can mean "to protect as if by inoculation" or "to introduce something into the mind of." // In 1796, the English physician Edward Jenner discovered that inoculating people with cowpox could provide immunity against smallpox. // The cheese is inoculated with a starter culture to promote fermentation. See the entry > Examples: "Truffle farmers ... inoculate oak or hazelnut seedlings with truffle spores, plant the seedlings and wait patiently often a decade or more for the underground relationship to mature. The eventual harvest is a reward for years of cooperation between tree and fungus." — David Shubin, The Weekly Calistogan (Calistoga, California), 30 Oct. 2025 Did you know? If you think you see a connection between inoculate and ocular ("of or relating to the eye"), you have a good eye—both words look back to oculus, the Latin word for "eye." But what does the eye have to do with inoculation? Our answer lies in the original use of inoculate in Middle English: "to insert a bud into a plant for propagation." The Latin oculus was sometimes applied to things that were seen to resemble eyes, and one such thing was the bud of a plant. Inoculate was later applied to other forms of engrafting or implanting, including the introduction of vaccines as a preventative against disease.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 4, 2025 is: frowsy • FROW-zee • adjective Something described as frowsy has a messy or dirty appearance. // The lamp, discovered in a neglected corner of a frowsy antique store, turned out to be quite valuable. See the entry > Examples: “Footage from his early shows is sublime. In one, models with frowsy hair totter along the catwalk in clogs, clutching—for reasons not explained—dead mackerel.” — Jess Cartner-Morley, The Guardian (London), 4 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Despite its meanings suggesting neglect and inattention, frowsy has been kept in steady rotation by English users since the late 1600s. The word (which is also spelled frowzy and has enjoyed other variants over the centuries) first wafted into the language in an olfactory sense describing that which smells fusty and musty—an old factory, perhaps, or “corrupt air from animal substance,” which Benjamin Franklin described as “frouzy” in a 1773 letter. Frowsy later gained an additional sense describing the appearance of something (or someone) disheveled or unkempt. Charles Dickens was a big fan of this usage, writing of “frowzy fields, and cowhouses” in Dombey and Son and “a frowzy fringe” of hair hanging about someone's ears in The Old Curiosity Shop. Both senses are still in use today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 3, 2025 is: alchemy • AL-kuh-mee • noun Alchemy refers to a power or process that changes or transforms something in a mysterious or impressive way. // They practiced their alchemy in the kitchen, turning a pile of vegetables and legumes into an extravagant meal. // The shopkeepers hoped for some sort of economic alchemy that would improve business. See the entry > Examples: “Forty years ago, the Nintendo Entertainment System hit North American shores, singlehandedly resurrecting the video-game market after its infamous post-Atari crash in 1983. To do so, it needed a heavy hitter, a killer must-have title that could put butts in seats and lock audiences into the tube TV until their eyes bleed. That game was Super Mario Bros.—a product so potent, its exact alchemy has never been re-created.” — Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 18 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Alchemy—the medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy that focused on the attempt to change less valuable metals into gold, to find a universal cure for disease, and to discover a means of prolonging life indefinitely—was practiced in much of the ancient world, from China and India to Greece. Alchemy as practiced in ancient Egypt was later revived in 12th-century Europe through translations of Arabic texts into Latin, which led to the development of pharmacology and to the rise of modern chemistry. The word alchemy was first used in English in the 1400s, and by the mid-1500s it had developed figurative senses relating to powers and processes that can change or transform things in mysterious or impressive ways.

Support #Millennial! The holiday season is here and so is our best offer at https://Patreon.com/millennial! Sign up for an annual membership and receive 20% off your subscription, guaranteeing perks through 2026!⁠⁠⁠ Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! This week we're kicking things off with the latest chaos in the news: Costco is suing the Trump administration over tariffs, and why your relatives may be adjusting their spending limits this holiday season. Then we dive into the year-defining weirdness of 2025, starting with the rise of “6-7,” the phrase so big it reached Andrew's young nephews and somehow became Dictionary.com's Word of the Year (wtf). We look at whether millennials ever had any comparable internet-inspired brain rot, then broaden out to the phrases, moments, and cultural oddities that shaped 2025. We're crashing out over all the new slang that we don't understand, but we're "letting them" enjoy this 6-7 trend. Shoutout to the viral moments that made 2025, like cheaters being exposed at a Coldplay concert, America losing TikTok for half a day, and Kendrick Lamar obliterating Drake at the Super Bowl. We also revisit the Epstein Files, our favorite cities that trolled ICE this year, Dick Cheney's non-mourned death, tariffs on literal penguins, and the recent Louvre robbery fiasco. 2025 may have felt like it was 300 years long, but all this and more was jam-packed into just 365 days. Pam mentioned listening back to our episode on Jimmy Kimmel and the FCC - here it is (Episode 11x35)! This week's recommendations: 'Heated Rivalry'  on HBO Max (Andrew), the Consumer Class Action Lawsuit Database (Laura), and exploring privately owned public spaces (POPS) in your city (Pam). And in this week's installment of After Dark: Andrew has a Bumble BFF gossip update, and we're talking about people crawling out of the woodwork for favors and why 2026 is all about embracing being a “villager.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 2, 2025 is: cajole • kuh-JOHL • verb To cajole someone is to use flattery or gentle urging to persuade them to do something or to give you something. Cajole can also mean “to deceive with soothing words or false promises.” It is often used with the word into. // She cajoled her partner into going to the party with her. // They hoped to cajole him into cooperating with local officials. See the entry > Examples: “... I cajoled my father into letting me use the company season tickets which were supposed to be used for clients, but sometimes wound up in my hands.” — Sal Maiorana, The Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, 22 Oct. 2025 Did you know? However hard we try, we can't cajole the full history of cajole from the cages of obscurity. We know that it comes from the French verb cajoler, meaning “to give much attention to; to make a fuss over; to flatter or persuade with flattery,” and goes back to the Middle French cajoller, meaning “to flatter out of self-interest.” But the next chapter of the word's history may, or may not, be for the birds: it's possible that cajoller relates to the Middle French verb cageoller, used for the action of a jay or other bird singing. Cageoller, in turn, traces back to gaiole, a word meaning “birdcage” in a dialect of Picardy.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 1, 2025 is: pseudonym • SOO-duh-nim • noun A pseudonym is a name that someone (such as a writer) uses instead of their real name. // bell hooks is the pseudonym of the American writer Gloria Jean Watkins. See the entry > Examples: “Edgar Wright, the filmmaker and genre specialist who has given the world modern gems like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Baby Driver, estimates he was around 13 years old when he read ‘the Bachman Books,' a collection of four novels that Stephen King published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman during the early years of his career.” — Don Kaye, Den of Geek, 9 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Pseudonym has its origins in the Greek adjective pseudōnymos, which means “bearing a false name.” French speakers adopted the Greek word as the noun pseudonyme, and English speakers later modified the French word into pseudonym. Many celebrated authors have used pseudonyms. Samuel Clemens wrote under the pseudonym “Mark Twain,” Charles Lutwidge Dodgson assumed the pseudonym “Lewis Carroll,” and Mary Ann Evans used “George Eliot” as her pseudonym.