Podcasts about word of the day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 1, 2026 is: nabob • NAY-bahb • noun A nabob is a very rich or important person. // The upscale hotel downtown is a popular meeting spot for the city's corporate nabobs. See the entry > Examples: “NBA nabobs were dismayed by the player empowerment era, where players dictated trades or abandoned teams via free agency.” — Christopher L. Gasper, The Boston Globe, 26 Jan. 2025 Did you know? In India's Mogul Empire, founded in the 16th century, provincial governors carried the Urdu title of nawāb. In 1612, Captain Robert Coverte published a report of his “discovery” of “the Great Mogoll, a prince not till now knowne to our English nation.” The Captain informed the English-speaking world that “An earle is called a Nawbob,” thereby introducing the English version of the word. Nabob, as it later came to be spelled, gained its extended sense of “a prominent person” in the 18th century, when it was applied sarcastically to British officials of the East India Company returning home after amassing great wealth in Asia. But the word was most famously used by Vice President Spiro Agnew, in a 1970 speech written by William Safire, when he referred to critical members of the news media as “nattering nabobs of negativism.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 30, 2026 is: bereft • bih-REFT • adjective To be bereft is to be deprived or robbed of something, or to lack something that you need, want, or expect. Bereft is also used as a synonym of bereaved. // They appear to be completely bereft of new ideas. See the entry > Examples: "... this morning when I was going out to play in the gardens, I went to put on my favorite baseball cap since the sun was hot and, being bereft of my own natural covering, I wished to avoid a sun-scorched scalp." — Dick Brooks, The Daily Gazette (Schenectady, New York), 7 May 2026 Did you know? In Old English, the verb berēafian meant "to deprive of something." The modern equivalent (and descendant) of berēafian is bereave, a verb used to say that one has deprived or stripped someone of something, often suddenly and unexpectedly, and sometimes by force. Bereft comes from the past participle of bereave; Shakespeare uses the participle in The Merchant of Venice, when Bassanio tells Portia, "Madam, you have bereft me of all words." But by Shakespeare's day bereft was also being used as an adjective. The Bard uses it in The Taming of the Shrew, as a newly obedient and docile Katharina declares, "A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled—muddy, … thick, bereft of beauty."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 29, 2026 is: umami • oo-MAH-mee • noun Umami refers to the taste sensation that is produced by several amino acids and nucleotides and that has a rich or meaty flavor characteristic of cheese, cooked meat, mushrooms, soy, and ripe tomatoes. // The chef's secret ingredient added the perfect burst of umami to the signature dish. See the entry > Examples: "This recipe uses a classic marble cake technique to swirl rich layers of cinnamon into a fluffy olive oil-scented loaf cake. It's topped with a malted milk glaze for a punch of umami, but you can skip it entirely or substitute a simple vanilla glaze." — Tanya Bush, Will This Make You Happy: Stories & Recipes from a Year of Baking, 2026 Did you know? Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda is credited with identifying as a distinct taste the savory flavor of the amino acid glutamic acid, which he first noticed in soup stocks made with seaweed. This fifth basic taste—alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter—was named umami, meaning "savoriness" in Japanese. Umami can be experienced in foods such as mushrooms, anchovies, and mature cheeses, as well as in foods enhanced with monosodium glutamate, or MSG, a sodium salt derived from glutamic acid.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 28, 2026 is: gainsay • gayn-SAY • verb To gainsay something is to deny or disagree with it, or to show or say that it is not true. Gainsay is a formal word usually used in negative statements. // Although the defendant initially denied involvement in the incident, there was no gainsaying the evidence that the prosecutor presented at the trial. See the entry > Examples: “Whatever you think of it, there's no gainsaying the fact that ‘The Sound of Music' is a remarkably durable vehicle. It's frequently produced, and suffered no lasting damage to its reputation from a live NBC performance in 2013 ...” — Don Aucoin, The Boston Globe, 9 Jan. 2026 Did you know? You might have trouble figuring out the meaning of gainsay if you're thinking of our modern word gain plus say. It should help to know that the gain part comes to us from the Old English word gēan-, meaning “against” or “in opposition to.” (The familiar verb gain comes from Anglo-French and is unrelated.) In Middle English, gēan- was joined to seyen (“to say”) to form gein-seyen, which led to the modern word gainsay. So when you see gainsay, think “to say against”—that is, “to deny” or “to contradict.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 27, 2026 is: oracular • aw-RAK-yuh-ler • adjective Oracular is a formal word that can describe something used to forecast or prophesize, or something that resembles or relates to something used for such purposes. Oracular can also describe something that resembles an oracle—a person (such as a priestess of ancient Greece) through whom a deity is believed to speak; in this sense, an oracular statement, voice, etc. conveys wisdom or solemnity. // A few recordings of the famous speaker still exist, and though his language is formal to the point of sounding almost foreign to the modern listener, the oracular quality of his speech remains effective. See the entry > Examples: "The conversation that unfolds is some of [writer Ben] Lerner's most brilliant and daring writing to date, a mad, oracular burst of speech—about technology, parenthood, and dreaming—that flits effortlessly between prose and poetry." — Kevin Lozano, Vulture, 3 Apr. 2026 Did you know? When the ancient Greeks had questions or problems, they would turn to the gods for answers by consulting an oracle, a person through whom the gods communicated, usually in the form of cryptic verse. Oracle also referred to the god's answer or to the shrine that worshippers approached when seeking advice; the word's root is the Latin verb orare, which means "to speak." English speakers today can use oracle to simply refer to an authoritative pronouncement or to a person who makes such pronouncements—for example, "a designer who is an oracle of fashion." And the related adjective oracular is used in similar contexts: "a designer who is an oracular voice of fashion."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 26, 2026 is: symbiosis • sim-bee-OH-sis • noun Symbiosis is a formal word that refers to a relationship between two people or groups that work with and depend on each other. In biology, symbiosis refers to the relationship between two different kinds of living things that live together and depend on each other. // The new playground is the result of symbiosis between multiple stakeholders, including residents, donors, and town officials. // The bacteria exist in symbiosis with the plant's roots. See the entry > Examples: “In the old days, which weren't that long ago ... there was that ritual moment when a rock ‘n' roll idol, in the midst of delivering a classic anthem, would point the mic away from himself and into the arena, indicating that it was time for the audience to take over and sing the lines. It might be Springsteen doing ‘Thunder Road,' or Madonna doing ‘Holiday.' ... The loving symbiosis of pop star and pop audience doesn't get much more reverent than that.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 7 May 2026 Did you know? Symbiosis was adopted by the scientific community in the late 1800s, coming ultimately (via German) from the Greek symbíōsis, meaning “living together, companionship.” Of course, there are a lot of ways to live together and, accordingly, several flavors of symbiosis. When a biological symbiosis between two organisms is mutually beneficial, it is termed mutualism. For example, oxpeckers are birds so named because they “peck” ticks off of infested cattle and wild mammals, a likely satisfying arrangement for both parties, and textbook mutualism. When one organism lives off another at the other's expense, however (as, for one icky instance, head lice do), it's called parasitism. If only parents of elementary school students could call upon an equivalent of oxpeckers to engage in mutualistic symbiosis when the need arose, but alas.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 25, 2026 is: jaundiced • JAWN-dist • adjective Jaundiced means “showing or influenced by feelings of distrust, distaste, or hostility.” Someone described as jaundiced, or as possessing jaundiced opinions or views, is typically understood to feel that way because of negative past experiences. // She developed a jaundiced view of politics after years of chairing her local school board committee and witnessing all kinds of petty shenanigans. See the entry > Examples: “Now, I'm not accusing the mayor of anything. I'm saying that all of these actions were highly inappropriate for an elected official. I voted for her, but will forevermore look at her actions with a jaundiced eye.” — Eric Rinehimer, The Retrospect (Collingswood, New Jersey), 23 Jan. 2026 Did you know? Cast not a jaundiced eye on the word jaundiced—and by that we mean this: don't dislike or distrust jaundiced because of past experiences with the word or with others like it. Jaundiced is handy for describing the grumps among us who tend toward envy, aversion, or hostility, and who doesn't know a few of those? This useful 17th century adjective comes from an also-useful 14th century noun jaundice that still refers to a medical condition in which excess bile pigments in the bloodstream and body tissues cause a person's skin to turn yellow. The connection between the physical condition and the bad attitude lies in the physiological theory of the bodily humors, which holds that a hostile, irritable temperament is caused by excess yellow bile in one's body.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 25, 2026 is: jaundiced • JAWN-dist • adjective Jaundiced means “showing or influenced by feelings of distrust, distaste, or hostility.” Someone described as jaundiced, or as possessing jaundiced opinions or views, is typically understood to feel that way because of negative past experiences. // She developed a jaundiced view of politics after years of chairing her local school board committee and witnessing all kinds of petty shenanigans. See the entry > Examples: “Now, I'm not accusing the mayor of anything. I'm saying that all of these actions were highly inappropriate for an elected official. I voted for her, but will forevermore look at her actions with a jaundiced eye.” — Eric Rinehimer, The Retrospect (Collingswood, New Jersey), 23 Jan. 2026 Did you know? Cast not a jaundiced eye on the word jaundiced—and by that we mean this: don't dislike or distrust jaundiced because of past experiences with the word or with others like it. Jaundiced is handy for describing the grumps among us who tend toward envy, aversion, or hostility, and who doesn't know a few of those? This useful 17th century adjective comes from an also-useful 14th century noun jaundice that still refers to a medical condition in which excess bile pigments in the bloodstream and body tissues cause a person's skin to turn yellow. The connection between the physical condition and the bad attitude lies in the physiological theory of the bodily humors, which holds that a hostile, irritable temperament is caused by excess yellow bile in one's body.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 24, 2026 is: pantheon • PAN-thee-ahn • noun Pantheon usually refers to a group of famous or notable people or things. It also refers to the officially recognized gods of a particular people, as well as to the Roman Pantheon, the domed temple begun in 27 B.C. and rebuilt circa 118-128 A.D. // With her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the distinguished bassist and songwriter joined a pantheon of musical legends. // His research is primarily dedicated to the Greek and Roman pantheons. See the entry > Examples: "From cheeky shots of celebrities like Jane Fonda and Arnold Schwarzenegger to extravagant, sensual portfolios of America's Olympic squads, the magazine's pantheon of photographers have helped to define the genre of sports portraiture." — Kahina Sekkaï, Vanity Fair, 14 May 2026 Did you know? Some of the earliest uses of pantheon in the English language refer to the most famous Pantheon, the circular domed temple built in Rome more than 19 centuries ago (and still standing). We can easily identify the origins of the temple's name, which the Romans borrowed from the Greek word for a temple honoring all their gods. That Greek word, pantheion, combines pan- ("all") and theos ("god"). In today's English, pantheon often refers to all the gods of a particular people (as in "the Egyptian pantheon"), a sense that arose in the 16th century but was rarely used until the 19th century. More often, though, pantheon bears a meaning developed later to refer to the eminent company of the highly venerated, be they human or not. A pantheon of this type includes no deities; it is a group of famous or notable people or things, as in "a book joining the pantheon of great world literature."

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 23, 2026 is: quail • KWAIL • verb To quail is to feel afraid and often to show your fear in a way that can be clearly seen. // Although giving a 5-minute speech was a requirement for passing the class, a few students quailed at the thought of public speaking, seeming to shrink behind their desks. See the entry > Examples: “Several came to protest but didn't want their own voices cited. A woman holding a sign reading ‘I'M A 77 YEAR OLD GRANNY FOR FREEDOM' quailed at the prospect of having her photo in the newspaper.” — Neil Steinberg, The Chicago Sun-Times, 19 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Turning to the noun quail, referring to any of a number of chicken-related game birds, for information about the verb quail is of little help. The two are etymologically unrelated, and there's nothing specific in the behavior of quails to suggest the verb's meaning. But never fear—the next time you hear quail, think quiver instead. Although quail and quiver are also unrelated, they both start with a distinctive qu and have meanings involving a physical reaction to fear. When you quiver (as in response to, say, hearing things that go bump in the night), you shake or move with a slight trembling motion. Quailing often goes a bit beyond trembling; quail implies shrinking or cowering in fear, as perhaps when the things that go bump in the night suddenly start approaching.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 22, 2026 is: cavalcade • kav-ul-KAYD • noun Cavalcade most often refers to a series of related things. An older meaning, still in use, is “a procession of riders or carriages”; vehicles or ships in a procession can be referred to as a cavalcade too. // Since the high-powered console's debut late last year, video game companies have steadily unveiled a cavalcade of new games that showcase its groundbreaking graphics. See the entry > Examples: “The event opened with a cavalcade of musicians, dancers and local children, followed by a horse-drawn carriage carrying the Watercress King and Queen ... who threw bags of freshly harvested watercress into the crowd as they paraded up and down Broad Street.” — Paul Coates, The Haslemere (England) Herald, 18 May 2026 Did you know? Cavalcade is a word with deep equestrian roots: it comes (via French and probably Italian) ultimately from the Latin word caballus, meaning “work horse” or “gelding.” (Spanish speakers may recognize the influence of caballus in the word caballo, meaning “horse.”) In the 17th century, cavalcade was used specifically to refer to a procession of horseback riders or carriages, especially as part of a special occasion, whether joyous or funereal. Over time, that meaning was extended to processions of other modes of travel, including ships, vehicles, or even paraders on foot or float (as invoked by the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith in his song “Rose Parade” with the lyric “a wink and a wave from the cavalcade”). As a cavalcade of words before and since have done, cavalcade also took on a figurative sense to refer to a series of related things, whether or not they happen to be marching (or trotting) down the road.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 21, 2026 is: assiduous • uh-SIJ-uh-wus • adjective Assiduous is a formal word that means “showing great care, attention, and effort.” // Thanks to the assiduous efforts of the local land trust over many years, a substantial amount of whip-poor-will habitat is now protected from development. See the entry > Examples: “My mom was also assiduous about what we would today call food safety, avoiding anything that could possibly cause illness, especially raw meat: ‘Well done' was the norm for everything, and anything that could possibly go bad was kept in the fridge.” — James Martin, Work in Progress: Confessions of a Busboy, Dishwasher, Caddy, Usher, Factory Worker, Bank Teller, Corporate Tool, and Priest, 2026 Did you know? While assiduous means “showing great care, attention, and effort,” and in some situations may be an appropriate substitute for careful, it's got a bit more oomph than careful in that it suggests a dogged or tireless persistence. If you are assiduous in your efforts (or work, research, analysis, training, preparations, etc.) for example, it's implied that you're in it for the long haul, or that you have the ability to “sit with” a task or challenge for a considerable amount of time. This idea is fitting given that assiduous comes from the Latin verb assidēre, meaning “to sit beside.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 20, 2026 is: longueur • lawn-GUR • noun Longueur refers to a boring part of something (such as a book or play). It is usually used in the plural form. // Though not without its longueurs, the opera came to life in the last act. See the entry > Examples: “Game 3 of the World Series was a stone-cold thriller, with peaks of high drama and longueurs of exquisitely tense tedium ...” — Steve Rushin, The Atlantic, 2 Nov. 2025 Did you know? You've probably come across long, tedious sections of books, plays, or musical works before, but perhaps you didn't know there was a word for them. The French borrowing longueur has been doing the job for us since the late 18th century. As in English, French longueurs are tedious passages, with longueur itself literally meaning “length.” An early example of longueur used in an English text is from 18th-century writer Horace Walpole, who wrote in a letter, “Boswell's book is gossiping; ... but there are woeful longueurs, both about his hero and himself.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 19, 2026 is: indomitable • in-DAH-muh-tuh-bul • adjective Indomitable is a formal word used to describe something that is impossible to defeat or discourage. // Juneteenth celebrates the abolition of slavery in the United States, and honors the indomitable spirit of African Americans past and present fighting for justice, liberation, and the fulfillment of this nation's ideals. See the entry > Examples: “During his legendary NBA career, Michael Jordan was renowned not only for his athleticism and skill but also for his indomitable will to win.” – Chicago Tribune, 1 Apr. 2026 Did you know? At five punchy syllables, indomitable is an imposing word, so it's inevitable that some are perplexed by this synonym for impregnable. But it's not so tough once you break it into parts. The prefix in- (spelled im- before b, m, and p) means “not” in an innumerable collection of English words. (How many have you counted so far?) The common suffix -able means “capable of, fit for, or worthy of.” Combine those two English affixes with the Latin verb domitare (“to tame”), and voila: indomitable. Indomitable was first used in English as a synonym of wild, describing—appropriately enough—things that cannot be tamed, but over time the wildness associated with indomitable developed into a specific kind of invulnerable strength.

Coaches Skip Hill, Andrew Berry and Scott McNally answer listener questions on contest prep, fat loss, thyroid use, GH shortages, first cycles, carb cycling, and the old-school strategies that still work today. Plus, a discussion on GH availability, Halotestin and Superdrol before contests, overreaching during prep, and whether some classic bodybuilding methods deserve a comeback. 0:00 Introduction 0:30 The Prep Tool We Would Never Use Today 0:55 Where Should High Carb Days Go? 4:00 High vs Low Clenbuterol & T3 Dosing 7:30 Why Old School Carb Cycles Still Work 14:00 Staying On T4/T3 Year-Round 16:00 Primo In A First Cycle Or More Testosterone? 19:00 Would You Ever Slow Fat Loss During Prep? 22:50 Road Cycling vs Leg Growth 27:45 True Nutrition | Code THINK 30:35 Pushing Into Overreaching During Prep 31:30 Greg Doucette Calling People Out 32:30 Why Bodybuilders Use Halotestin & Superdrol Before Shows 36:45 Testing Oral Compounds Before Peak Week 39:00 What's Happening To GH On The Underground Market? 43:20 GH vs GH Secretagogues 44:40 Skip's Word Of The Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 18, 2026 is: acquiesce • ak-wee-ESS • verb To acquiesce to something is to accept it, agree with it, or allow it to happen by staying silent or by not arguing. Acquiesce is somewhat formal, and is often used with in or to. // Eventually, the professor acquiesced to the students' request to have the seminar's final class be a potluck lunch. See the entry > Examples: “It may be just the right time for a chicken burger to become a significant stop on the American burger's continual evolution—but whether beef-clinging purists will acquiesce to a poultry spin, or cry fowl, remains to be seen.” — Talib Visram, Slate, 6 Apr. 2026 Did you know? If you're looking to give your speech a gentle, formal flair, don't give acquiesce the silent treatment. Essentially meaning “to comply quietly,” acquiesce has as its ultimate source the Latin verb quiēscere, “to be quiet.” (Quiet itself is also a close relation.) Quiēscere can also mean “to repose,” “to fall asleep,” or “to rest,” and when acquiesce arrived in English via French in the early 1600s, it did so with two senses: the familiar “to agree or comply” and the now-obsolete “to rest satisfied.” Herman Melville employed the former in Moby-Dick, when Ahab orders the “confounded” crew to change the Pequod's course after a storm damages the compasses: “Meanwhile, whatever were his own secret thoughts, Starbuck said nothing, but quietly he issued all requisite orders; while Stubb and Flask—who in some small degree seemed then to be sharing his feelings—likewise unmurmuringly acquiesced.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 17, 2026 is: wifty • WIF-tee • adjective Wifty, a synonym of ditzy, describes something or someone eccentrically silly or scatterbrained. // The play features a wifty character who starts out blissfully unaware of the conflict driving the plot but ultimately pulls it together to save the day. See the entry > Examples: “When he dreams, he dreams about moving to Wyoming, which he has visited with his family. ... Sometimes when he talks about this, it sounds as ordinary and hard-boiled as a real estate appraisal; other times it can sound fantastical and wifty and achingly naive ...” — Susan Orlean, Joyride: A Memoir, 2025 Did you know? Whence wifty? Wordsmiths have been wondering for a while. The earliest print evidence of wifty comes from the early 20th century, though the word was certainly being used in spoken English before that. The adjective suffix -y is clear enough; when added to another word it can mean “full of” (as in “muddy), “having the character of” (think “waxy”), “tending or inclined to” (as in “sleepy”), etc. So what's wift? Well, that element could come from whiff, which as a noun can refer to a quick puff or slight gust of air—a person described by the word wifty might also, if unkindly, be called an airhead. Or perhaps the wift is related to waft, “to move or go lightly on a buoyant medium,” if it's fair to say that the wifty among us have their heads in the clouds. Whatever once may have been known about it, the answer is now blowing in the wind.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 16, 2026 is: gamut • GAM-ut • noun A gamut is a range or series of related things. When we say that something “runs the gamut,” we are saying that it encompasses an entire range of related things. // The flea market offerings run the gamut with a wide array of vendors each offering something unique. See the entry > Examples: “... she brings a certain je ne sais quoi to the production with themes running the gamut from circuses and rodeos to mermaids and pirates.” — Heather Douglas, Coast Weekend (Astoria, Oregon), 23 Apr. 2026 Did you know? With the song “Do-Re-Mi,” the 1965 musical film The Sound of Music (adapted from the 1958 stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein) introduced millions of non-musicians to solfège, the singing of the sol-fa syllables—do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti—to teach the tones of a musical scale. Centuries earlier, however, the do in “Do-Re-Mi” was known as ut. Indeed, the first note on the scale of Guido d'Arezzo, an 11th century musician and monk who had his own way of applying syllables to musical tones, was ut. d'Arezzo also called the first line of his bass staff gamma, which meant that gamma-ut was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, gamma-ut underwent a shortening to gamut, and later its meaning expanded first to cover all the notes of d'Arezzo's scale, then to cover all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, to cover an entire range of any sort.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 15, 2026 is: tenuous • TEN-yoo-us • adjective Something described as tenuous is flimsy, weak, or uncertain. // The theater had a tenuous existence for years, but today is on much more solid financial footing. See the entry > Examples: “While more non-screen-based interactive technology could be an antidote to our screen-obsessed society, it's an extremely tenuous link to more human interaction ...” — Jennifer Pattinson Tuohy, The Verge, 4 May 2026 Did you know? Lean into the history of tenuous and you'll find that the word comes to English from the Latin adjective tenuis, meaning “fine-drawn, thin, narrow, or slight,” and is a relative of thin. Like that more familiar word, tenuous has a wide array of meanings: it can describe a literal thinness, as in “a silkworm's tenuous threads,” or rarity (the opposite of density), as in “a tenuous fluid,” or it can describe things that are figuratively thin or flimsy. If one team in a game has a tenuous lead, either team still has a chance at winning. If there is only a tenuous connection between two events, those events are likely unrelated.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 15, 2026 is: tenuous • TEN-yoo-us • adjective Something described as tenuous is flimsy, weak, or uncertain. // The theater had a tenuous existence for years, but today is on much more solid financial footing. See the entry > Examples: “While more non-screen-based interactive technology could be an antidote to our screen-obsessed society, it's an extremely tenuous link to more human interaction ...” — Jennifer Pattinson Tuohy, The Verge, 4 May 2026 Did you know? Lean into the history of tenuous and you'll find that the word comes to English from the Latin adjective tenuis, meaning “fine-drawn, thin, narrow, or slight,” and is a relative of thin. Like that more familiar word, tenuous has a wide array of meanings: it can describe a literal thinness, as in “a silkworm's tenuous threads,” or rarity (the opposite of density), as in “a tenuous fluid,” or it can describe things that are figuratively thin or flimsy. If one team in a game has a tenuous lead, either team still has a chance at winning. If there is only a tenuous connection between two events, those events are likely unrelated.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 14, 2026 is: emblazon • im-BLAY-zun • verb To emblazon something is to decorate its surface, usually with a name, slogan, or picture. // Her favorite souvenir from her trip to the Grand Canyon was a t-shirt emblazoned with a rosy sunset over the famous chasm. See the entry > Examples: “Later that week we were boarding our flight with the painting secured in an enormous case with a toothy, bespectacled cartoon squirrel emblazoned on the back and a speech bubble that read ‘I'M JUST NUTS ABOUT PUZZLES!'” — Orlando Whitfield, All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art, 2025 Did you know? Blazon is a less commonly used synonym of the more familiar coat of arms. Both centuries-old terms refer to heraldic designs, symbols, and other imagery (think crosses, lions, stripes, etc.) that typically appear on banners, shields, armor, and elsewhere. The verb form of blazon meaning “to depict heraldic figures or designs in drawing or engraving” and emblazon, “to inscribe or adorn with or as if with heraldic figures or designs,” came into use around the same time in the late 1500s, from the French spoken in medieval England. (The word heraldry, also ultimately from Anglo-French, came into use then too.) Emblazon still refers to marking something with an emblem of heraldry, but it is now more often used for adorning or publicizing something in any conspicuous way, whether with eye-catching decoration or colorful words of praise.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 13, 2026 is: hale • HAIL • adjective Someone described as hale is in good and often exceptional health. Hale is commonly used in the phrase "hale and hearty." // Their mother remains hale and hearty in her old age. See the entry > Examples: "Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell star [in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes] as two vivacious all-American showgirls whose friendship is as fast as their attitudes to men are poles apart. Whereas Monroe's Lorelei Lee prizes wealth and devotion in a suitor, Russell's Dorothy Shaw is more inclined towards the hale and hunky ..." — Robbie Collin, The Telegraph (United Kingdom), 2 May 2026 Did you know? English has two hale homographs: the adjective that is frequently paired with hearty to describe those healthy and strong, and the somewhat uncommon verb that has to do with literal or figurative hauling or pulling. (One can hale a boat onto shore, or hale a person into a courtroom with the aid of legal ramifications for resistance.) The verb comes from the Middle English halen (also the root of our word haul), but the adjective has a bifurcated origin, with two Middle English terms identified as sources: hale and hail. Both of those come from words meaning "healthy," the former from the Old English hāl, and the latter from the Old Norse heill. The Middle English hail is also the source of the three modern English words spelled as hail, the verb, interjection, and noun that have to do with greeting.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 12, 2026 is: blandishment • BLAN-dish-munt • noun Blandishments are nice things that you say or do to convince someone to do something. Blandishment is usually used in the plural form. // Despite the many blandishments of the dressing room attendant, we were resolved not to overspend at the fashion boutique. See the entry > Examples: “… he sought to turn the attack around by saying his vast wealth—which has allowed him to richly fund his political endeavors—made him immune to the blandishments of plutocrats and corporate interests.” — Mark Z. Barabak, The Los Angeles Times, 23 Feb. 2026 Did you know? When Star Wars audiences first meet former smuggler Lando Calrissian—played iconically by Billy Dee Williams—in The Empire Strikes Back, he is full of blandishments, offering flattery (telling Leia “You truly belong here with us among the clouds”) and gifts to our heroes in the form of food and drink (“Will you join me for a little refreshment?”) in order to entice them into what we soon discover is a trap. Notably, before the whole sordid deal goes down (and before Lando's eventual redemption), Han Solo calls him “an old smoothie.” Lando's verbal smoothness can be linked to blandishment too: the word was formed from the verb blandish, meaning “to coax with flattery.” Blandish ultimately comes from the Latin adjective blandus, meaning “influencing others by flattery,” source too of our adjective bland, which typically describes things boring and flavorless but which can also mean “smooth and soothing in manner or quality”—a meaning that also applies to everyone's favorite Cloud City administrator.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2026 is: saturnine • SAT-er-nyne • adjective Saturnine is a literary word that typically describes people who are glum and grumpy, or things that suggest or express gloom. It can also mean “slow to act or change.” // A walk in the sunshine can improve your mood significantly, raising the spirits of even the most saturnine among us. See the entry > Examples: “If he was once more cautious in interviews, coming across as a little saturnine, he's looser now, illuminated by flashes of wry humour.” — Patrick Smith, The Independent (United Kingdom), 1 Feb. 2026 Did you know? Saturnine is far—even astronomically far—from the cheeriest of words. It has a long history of describing the glum and grouchy among us, and comes ultimately from Sāturnus, name of the Roman god of agriculture, who was often depicted as a bent old man with a stern, sluggish, and sullen nature. Saturn, the ringed gas giant that is one of five planets visible to the naked eye, is of course the namesake of Sāturnus, and Saturn does indeed seem to dawdle; it requires over 29 of our Earth years to orbit the sun. The ancient Romans (like some astrologers today) believed those who are born when Saturn is rising in the sky tend toward being a Gloomy Gus or Debbie Downer. We don't know A. A. Milne's take on the influence of Saturn, but his gloomy, cynical gray donkey Eeyore is famously saturnine, a fact Eeyore himself would surely stoically accept as true if it were pointed out to him.

Good Morning, Fake or For Real, Jeff's Italian Word of the Day: braSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 10, 2026 is: foible • FOY-bul • noun Foibles are minor flaws or shortcomings in someone's character or behavior. In fencing, foible refers to the weakest part of a sword's blade, between the middle and point. // You have to be able to laugh at your own foibles. See the entry > Examples: "The British sketch comedy troupe Monty Python loved taking aim at contemporary foibles through its twisted and liberal reading of history." — David Faris, The Week, 29 Apr. 2026 Did you know? Many word lovers agree that the pen is mightier than the sword. But be they honed in wit or form, even the sharpest tools in the shed have their flaws. That's where foible comes in handy. Borrowed from French in the 1600s, the word originally referred to the weakest part of a fencing sword, that part being the portion between the middle and the pointed tip. The English foible soon came to be applied not only to weaknesses in blades but also to minor failings in character. Foible ultimately traces back to the Old French term feble, which is also the source of our English adjective feeble.

Romans 3:21-31 Part 2: The Word of the Day with Rene' Holaday. In this episode, I point out why the modern, world famous Pastors are wrong, primarily Pastor Joseph Prince, being completely wrong about Colossians 2:14, and how his entire teaching is based on his incorrect information! I normally don't point out anyone who's teaching are incorrect, but I have this morning. Come and see why! The TRUTH is important, and that is what this Bible study is all about! This is why we study!

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 9, 2026 is: deleterious • del-uh-TEER-ee-us • adjective Deleterious is a word used in formal speech and writing to describe something that is damaging or harmful, usually in a subtle or unexpected way. // Though effective at keeping pests away from plants, the spray is no longer used because of its deleterious effects on the respiratory system. See the entry > Examples: “Canceling email addresses used by alumni over many years could have deleterious consequences for professional networking, which will become increasingly important as the AI roll-out accelerates and disrupts careers for thousands of college graduates.” — William Golz, NOLA.com (New Orleans, Louisiana), 15 Apr. 2026 Did you know? When you hold down the delete key on your keyboard or touchscreen, the effect—whoosh!—is instantaneous. Deleterious effects, however, are often not so obvious; deleterious (ultimately from a Greek word meaning “to hurt”) is used to describe things that are harmful in ways that are unexpected, slow-acting, or not readily apparent. Although most often used in formal speech and writing, deleterious is far from rare. It even pops up from time to time in film and television, especially from the mouths of wonky characters, as when Seven of Nine warns the Doctor in an episode of Star Trek Voyager, “The nebula is having a deleterious effect on all the ship's technology,” or when Higgins exclaims in the original Magnum P.I. series, “It's shocking what a deleterious effect a regimen of nothing but mushrooms can have on a man.” We'll take your word for it, Higgins.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 8, 2026 is: accoutrement • uh-KOO-truh-munt • noun An accoutrement is a piece of clothing or equipment that is used in a particular place or for a particular activity. In military contexts, accoutrement refers specifically to a soldier's outfit. The word can also refer to an identifying and often superficial characteristic or device. Accoutrement in any of its uses is often pluralized. // They have all the accoutrements that a baker could ever want, including a robust collection of cookie cutters and a veritable wardrobe of vintage aprons. See the entry > Examples: "From the spectacularly colorful Parade of Flags ... to the customary dress and cultural accoutrements of the nations, we see just how rich, varied and wonderful are the backgrounds of these students who have traveled far to study among us." – The Commercial Dispatch (Columbus, Mississippi), 14 Apr. 2026 Did you know? Accoutrement and its rarer relative accoutre, a verb meaning "to provide with equipment or furnishings" or "to outfit," have been appearing in English texts since the 16th century. Today both words have variant spellings—accouterment and accouter, respectively. The pair's French ancestor, accoutrer, descends from an Old French word meaning "to put in place" and may ultimately trace back to the Latin word consuere, meaning "to sew together." Some etymological stitching is visible in another English word: couture, a word referring to the business of making fashionable clothes, as well as to the clothes themselves, is a direct French borrowing that ultimately descends from consuere.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 7, 2026 is: MacGyver • muh-GHYE-ver • verb To MacGyver something is to make, form, or repair it with materials that are conveniently on hand. // Social media websites are full of videos that show people MacGyvering everything from a life jacket out of a pair of pants to a stove using three metal cans and some dirt. See the entry > Examples: “Maybe your shovel broke the first time you tried to clear wet, heavy snow off your sidewalk and you never replaced it. ... Of course, before you start MacGyvering a shovel from spare parts in your garage, you can ask a neighbor for assistance or make a few phone calls and pay for a service to clear your driveway or sidewalks.” — Caroline Anschutz, SlashGear.com, 28 Jan. 2026 Did you know? Angus MacGyver, as portrayed by actor Richard Dean Anderson in the titular, action-packed television series MacGyver, was many things—including a secret agent, a Swiss Army knife enthusiast, and a convert to vegetarianism—but he was no MacGuffin (a character that keeps the plot in motion despite lacking intrinsic importance). In fact, so memorable was this man, his mullet, and his ability to use whatever was available to him—often simple things, such as a paper clip, chewing gum, or a rubber band—to escape a sticky situation or to make a device to help him complete a mission, that people began associating his name with making quick fixes or finding innovative solutions to immediate problems. Hence the verb MacGyver, a slang term meaning to “make, form, or repair (something) with what is conveniently on hand.” After years of steadily increasing and increasingly varied usage following the show's run from 1985 to 1992 (tracked in some detail here), MacGyver was added to our online dictionary in 2022.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 6, 2026 is: valedictory • val-uh-DIK-tuh-ree • adjective Valedictory describes something expressing or containing a farewell. // The valedictory speech given by the department chair moved several faculty members to tears. See the entry > Examples: “Did I regret not catching a retrospective showing of ‘Little Miss Sunshine,' in a special valedictory program of Sundance sensations from over the years? Perhaps—though not as much as I regretted missing the screening of Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden's ‘Half Nelson' (2006). That's the title that I remember most fondly from my first year at Sundance ...” — Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 2026 Did you know? Valedictory addresses delivered by valedictorians at high school and college graduations are as much a sign of spring in the United States as baseball games and cookouts. Though we don't know where the first valedictory address was given, we do know that such addresses were an institution at some colleges in the U.S. by the time Noah Webster wrote his famous 1828 dictionary. (We also know that valedictory was used in non-academic settings—mostly churches, and especially in the phrase “valedictory sermon”—from the mid-1600s.) Since a valedictory speech is given at the end of an academic career, it is perfectly in keeping with the meaning of its Latin ancestor, valedīcere, which means “to say goodbye.”