Podcasts about word of the day

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.

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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.

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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.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 5, 2026 is: interloper • in-ter-LOH-per • noun An interloper is a person who intrudes in a place or sphere of activity; they are not wanted or welcome by the other people present. // Summer residents were regarded as interlopers who lacked a commitment to the town's welfare. See the entry > Examples: "... my garden is wildlife friendly, sometimes too friendly. By not being overly concerned about interlopers, it welcomes birds and bugs now, including beneficial insects. They help keep things in balance. Not so welcome are rabbits, but they still find their way in." — David Hobson, The Waterloo (Ontario) Region Record, 16 Apr. 2026 Did you know? If you keep chickens, a coyote loping around in the vicinity of your coop is not welcome. You'd be justified, both semantically and etymologically, in calling such a coyote an interloper. The -loper part of interloper shares an ancestor with the Old English verb hlēapan, meaning "to leap," and the Dutch verb lopen, meaning "to run." (The verb lope does too.) The prefix inter- means "between" or "among," so an interloper is essentially one that leaps in among others (for example, a flock of hens) without an invitation to do so. Interloper made itself at home among English speakers in the late 1500s; the verb interlope, which arrived close in tow in the early 1600s, is likely a back-formation.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 4, 2026 is: redolent • RED-uh-lunt • adjective As a synonym of aromatic, the word redolent can describe something that has a noticeable smell without specifying the scent, but more often it is accompanied by of or with and means “full of a specified fragrance,” as in “redolent with incense.” Redolent can also describe something that causes thoughts or memories of something, as in “music redolent of the 1980s.” // The late-spring meadow was redolent of wildflowers and petrichor. See the entry > Examples: “The store is redolent with the aroma of warm chocolate and an ambience evoking the agricultural roots of cacao with plants and growing tunnels.” — Robert Channick, The Chicago Tribune, 13 Feb. 2026 Did you know? Redolent traces back to the Latin verb olēre (“to smell”) and is a relative of olfactory, “of, relating to, or connected with the sense of smell.” In its earliest English uses in the 15th century, redolent simply meant “having an aroma.” Today, it usually applies to a place or thing permeated with odors. Scent and memory are famously linked, and an extended use of redolent to mean “evocative” or “suggestive” links them again, as in “lollipops redolent of childhood.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 4, 2026 is: redolent • RED-uh-lunt • adjective As a synonym of aromatic, the word redolent can describe something that has a noticeable smell without specifying the scent, but more often it is accompanied by of or with and means “full of a specified fragrance,” as in “redolent with incense.” Redolent can also describe something that causes thoughts or memories of something, as in “music redolent of the 1980s.” // The late-spring meadow was redolent of wildflowers and petrichor. See the entry > Examples: “The store is redolent with the aroma of warm chocolate and an ambience evoking the agricultural roots of cacao with plants and growing tunnels.” — Robert Channick, The Chicago Tribune, 13 Feb. 2026 Did you know? Redolent traces back to the Latin verb olēre (“to smell”) and is a relative of olfactory, “of, relating to, or connected with the sense of smell.” In its earliest English uses in the 15th century, redolent simply meant “having an aroma.” Today, it usually applies to a place or thing permeated with odors. Scent and memory are famously linked, and an extended use of redolent to mean “evocative” or “suggestive” links them again, as in “lollipops redolent of childhood.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 3, 2026 is: engender • in-JEN-der • verb Engender is a formal word that means “to be the source or cause of something.” // Our monthly book club meetings started as a way to connect and ended up being a great place to engender unity and build life-long friendships. See the entry > Examples: “... ‘During a moment defined by anti-intellectualism, escapism, and AI tools that let you skip cognitive work entirely ... intellectual creators are doing something kinda countercultural,' says Death To Stock's culture researcher Agus Panzoni. These influencers, who have already built established communities around intellectual pursuits, hold greater meaning and engender more trust ...” — Markiel Magsalin, Vogue, 15 Apr. 2026 Did you know? A good paragraph about engender will engender understanding in the reader. Like its synonym generate, engender comes from the Latin verb generare, meaning “to generate” or “to beget,” and when the word was first used in the 14th century, engender meant “propagate” or “procreate.” That literal meaning having to do with creating offspring (which generate shared when it was adopted in the early 16th century) was soon joined by the “to cause to exist or develop, to produce” meaning most familiar to us today. Generare didn't just engender generate and engender; regenerate, degenerate, and generation have the same Latin root. As you might suspect, the list of engender relatives does not end there. Generare comes from the Latin noun genus, meaning “origin” or “kind.” From this source we took our own word genus, plus gender, general, and generic, among other words.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 3, 2026 is: engender • in-JEN-der • verb Engender is a formal word that means “to be the source or cause of something.” // Our monthly book club meetings started as a way to connect and ended up being a great place to engender unity and build life-long friendships. See the entry > Examples: “... ‘During a moment defined by anti-intellectualism, escapism, and AI tools that let you skip cognitive work entirely ... intellectual creators are doing something kinda countercultural,' says Death To Stock's culture researcher Agus Panzoni. These influencers, who have already built established communities around intellectual pursuits, hold greater meaning and engender more trust ...” — Markiel Magsalin, Vogue, 15 April 2026 Did you know? A good paragraph about engender will engender understanding in the reader. Like its synonym generate, engender comes from the Latin verb generare, meaning “to generate” or “to beget,” and when the word was first used in the 14th century, engender meant “propagate” or “procreate.” That literal meaning having to do with creating offspring (which generate shared when it was adopted in the early 16th century) was soon joined by the “to cause to exist or develop, to produce” meaning most familiar to us today. Generare didn't just engender generate and engender; regenerate, degenerate, and generation have the same Latin root. As you might suspect, the list of engender relatives does not end there. Generare comes from the Latin noun genus, meaning “origin” or “kind.” From this source we took our own word genus, plus gender, general, and generic, among other words.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2026 is: crux • KRUKS • noun Crux refers to the most important part of something (such as a problem, issue, or puzzle). It is often used in the phrase "the crux of." // The crux of the problem is that the project's budget is totally inadequate. See the entry > Examples: "The new trees number in the thousands. ... What will become of this nursery in the wild in the next hundred years, or thousand, is the crux of a scientific and policy dispute. Starkly different visions of how the grove will recover in the long run have implications on how forest managers should act today." — Doug Smith, The Los Angeles Times, 15 Mar. 2026 Did you know? Latin speakers used crux to refer literally to an instrument of torture, often a cross or stake, and figuratively to the torture and misery inflicted by means of such an instrument. When English speakers adopted crux in the early 18th century, they used it to mean "a puzzling or difficult problem." In the late 19th century, crux developed a more specific use referring to an essential point of a legal case that required resolution before the case as a whole could be resolved. Today, the verdict on crux is that it can be used to refer to any important part of a problem or argument, inside or outside of the courtroom.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2026 is: palatable • PAL-uh-tuh-bul • adjective Palatable describes something that has a pleasant or agreeable taste, or that is pleasant or acceptable to someone. // Our group was pleasantly surprised that the food options at the local fair were actually palatable this year. // Given the traffic downtown, traveling by train is a palatable alternative to driving. See the entry > Examples: “[Toni] Morrison's work was not meant to be a palatable salve. Instead, surprise and provocation are the ingredients of her fiction.” — Edna Bonhomme, The New Republic, 6 Mar. 2026 Did you know? It may be a coincidence that you can't spell the word palatable without all of the letters in plate (the two words are etymologically unrelated), but this fact may help you remember that palatable is synonymous with a host of words that can describe an enjoyable meal, from tasty to toothsome. Alternatively, you could just stick your finger in your mouth and touch the roof of your mouth, aka your palate. As the palate was once considered the seat of one's sense of taste, so the word palate eventually came to refer to both a literal and figurative sense of taste (as in “architecture too ornate for my palate”). The adjective palatable arose from palate (via the now-rare verb palate defined in our Unabridged dictionary as “to taste or relish”) in the 17th century, and functions similarly. Seasonings from adobo to za'atar make food more palatable, certainly, but ideas and advice can be made more palatable, too. As a wise woman once sang, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2026 is: permutation • per-myoo-TAY-shun • noun Permutation is a formal word for any one of the many different ways or forms in which something exists or can be arranged. It can also refer to a major or fundamental change in something based primarily on rearrangement of its existing elements. Permutation is usually used in its plural form. // Early permutations of the design look nothing like the final result. // The system has gone through several permutations. See the entry > Examples: “Megadeth have weathered nearly all of metal's generational permutations, only once deviating from their ... formula with 1999's infamously confused country'n'industrial mish-mash, Risk.” — Eli Enis, Pitchfork, 26 Jan. 2026 Did you know? “Ch-ch-changes!” David Bowie sang memorably in his classic (and appropriately titled) hit “Changes,” which concerns the phenomenon of artistic reinvention—something Bowie knew a lot about. In fact, he could have titled the song “Permutations,” though we admit that the word would have been a bit clunkier to sing. Permutation is, after all, all about change—specifically change (as in character or condition) of something based primarily on rearrangement of its existing elements. For example, Bowie's artistic persona went through many permutations over the course of his career, from the alien rock star Ziggy Stardust to the aristocratic Thin White Duke, with the common denominator—the existing elements—being Bowie himself. (Permutation can also be used for a form or variety resulting from such changes, and can thus refer to Bowie's individual personae as well.) Permutation, perhaps ironically, has not changed all that much since it was borrowed into Middle English from Anglo-French as permutacioun.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2026 is: unctuous • UNK-chuh-wus • adjective Unctuous is a word that's undergone change in recent years. It now often describes food that is fatty and oily, especially in a pleasing way. Formerly it was more typically applied as a formal adjective describing someone who is figuratively oily—that is, overly or insincerely flattering. Both uses can be found today. // Braising chicken thighs with their skins on creates a rich, unctuous sauce that can be spooned back over the finished dish. // The mayor's unctuous assistant was making the rounds at the fundraiser, chatting up those known to have the biggest bank accounts. See the entry > Examples: “The thinly sliced pork belly is shaved into curlicues and cooks up super quickly and crisply, so it's great for an impatient group or as a first round. Thick slices are more akin to what you'd find at Korean BBQ restaurants nowadays; they'll cook and sizzle in their own fat … resulting in juicy, unctuous bites.” — Irene Yoo, Soju Party: How to Drink (and Eat!) Like a Korean, 2025 Did you know? Unctuous is a slippery word in multiple ways. Its ultimate source is a Latin word meaning “to anoint; to smear or rub with oil or an oily substance,” and this oily character was key to the word's meaning when it first appeared in the 14th century, as when John Trevisa wrote “Þe fruit of olyue is ful of liȝt, likynge, and vnctuous” (in modern English: “the olive fruit is bright, delicious, and unctuous”). Unctuous here means “fatty” or “oily,” as did its immediate Medieval Latin predecessor unctuosus. This same use of unctuous is quite prominent today, as the word often describes deliciously fatty foods and the sensation of such foods on the palate (as in “an unctuous mouthfeel”). But come across unctuous in literature of the 19th or 20th century and you're more likely to see a less pleasant application, with the word describing a person or behavior that is figuratively oily—that is, overly or insincerely flattering.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2026 is: cohort • KOH-hort • noun Cohort refers to a group or band of individuals, as in “a cohort of supporters.” It can also be used for a group of individuals who have a statistical factor (such as age) in common in a demographic study, as in “a cohort of people born in the 1980s.” Cohort can be used for individuals too, as for a friend, companion, or colleague, but it is almost always used in its plural form. // I wouldn't have made it through graduate school without the help of my supportive cohort. See the entry > Examples: “By the time Rosie emerged ... for her afternoon meet-and-greet, the line of guests eager to hold the famed tarantula had already wrapped around the room and into the hallway. ... Tarantulas need to be at least 10 years old to be handled, so rearing a new cohort of Rosies could take up to a decade.” — Laura Penington, The Denver Post, 18 Aug. 2025 Did you know? In ancient times, a cohort was a military unit, one of ten divisions in a Roman legion. The term passed into English in the 15th century, when it was used in translations and writings about Roman history. Once cohort became established in our language, its meaning was extended, first to refer to any body of troops, then to any group of individuals with something in common (as in “a cohort of law students” or “a cohort of people who were born in the same year”), and later to a single companion. Some writers on usage have objected to this last sense because it can be hard to tell whether the plural refers to different individuals or different groups. The “companion” sense is well established in standard use, however, and its meaning is clear enough in such sentences as “her cohorts came along with her to the game.”

Matt 24 & 25 "No One Knows the Day or the Hour" Friday 5-29-26 (1-30-26) The Word of the Day w Rene' Holaday

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 28, 2026 is: ingratiate • in-GRAY-shee-ayt • verb To ingratiate yourself with others is to gain their favor or approval by deliberately doing or saying things they will like. Ingratiate is usually used with with, and is often (though not always) used disapprovingly. // Scam artists often have an uncanny ability to ingratiate themselves with their victims using subtle flattery that only seems obvious in retrospect. // Although she was nervous to be the new girl in school, Emma quickly ingratiated herself with her classmates through her effortless charm and kind demeanor. See the entry > Examples: “In ever greater numbers, Elizabeth's subjects flocked north to ingratiate themselves with the Queen's likely successor.” — Tracy Borman, The Stolen Crown: Treachery, Deceit, and the Death of the Tudor Dynasty, 2025 Did you know? When you ingratiate yourself, you put yourself in someone's good graces in order to gain their approval or favor. While the word ingratiate does not necessarily imply that your behavior is obsequious or otherwise improper, the word may be used disapprovingly by those who distrust your motives. The word entered English in the early 1600s from the combining of the Latin noun gratia, meaning “grace” or “favor,” with the English prefix in-. Gratia comes from the adjective gratus, meaning “pleasing, grateful.” Gratus has, over the centuries, ingratiated itself well with the English language as the ancestor of a whole host of words including gratuitous, congratulate, and grace.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 27, 2026 is: benevolent • buh-NEV-uh-lunt • adjective Benevolent can describe someone or something that is kind and generous or something that is organized for the purpose of doing good. // The event's reception was courtesy of a benevolent donor who's chosen to remain anonymous. // They belong to several benevolent societies and charitable organizations. See the entry > Examples: "The Community Service Award is presented at the local, state and national levels to individuals and groups who have made outstanding voluntary, civil, heroic or benevolent contributions to their communities." — Devin Weeks, The Coeur d'Alene (Idaho) Press, 24 Dec. 2025 Did you know? One who is benevolent genuinely wishes other people well, a meaning reflected clearly in the word's Latin roots: benevolent comes from bene, meaning "good," and velle, meaning "to wish." Other descendants of velle in English include volition, which refers to the power to make one's own choices or decisions, and voluntary, as well as the rare velleity, meaning either "the lowest degree of volition" or "a slight wish or tendency." A more familiar velle descendant stands directly opposed to benevolent: malevolent describes someone or something having or showing a desire to cause harm to another person.

WoD with Rene Holaday for Wednesday 5-27-26 Revelation 14:7-20

Word of the Day with Rene Holaday for Tuesday 5-26-26 Psalm 11:1-7

Word of the Day with Rene Holaday for Monday 5-25-26 Luke 15:1-32

Word of the Day with Rene Holaday for Saturday 5-23-26 Acts 18:1-18

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 26, 2026 is: Gordian knot • GOR-dee-un-NAHT • noun Gordian knot refers to a complicated and difficult problem. It is often used in the phrase cut the Gordian knot, which means “to solve a difficult problem in a very direct way by doing something forceful or extreme.” // The organization's change in leadership is being widely applauded as a step toward stability, but many are less than optimistic about the new director's ability to cut the Gordian knot at the center of its troubles. See the entry > Examples: “Meanwhile, officials are having high-level conversations about the long-term effectiveness of Michigan's aging dam infrastructure and the growing need for effective flood mitigation measures. Whitmer noted a Gordian knot of complexity around the state's dams, many of which are operated through murky public-private arrangements.” — Byron McCauley, The Holland (Michigan) Sentinel, 23 Apr. 2026 Did you know? According to legend, when the peasant Gordius became king of Gordium, capital of the ancient district of Phrygia (in what is now modern Türkiye), he fastened the yoke of his wagon to a beam with a very complex knot. Centuries later, when Alexander the Great arrived on the scene, he was told that he couldn't conquer and rule Asia unless he proved himself worthy by untying the knot. Alexander quickly solved his problem—and gained a new kingdom—by slicing the knot in half with his sword. Since then, Gordian knot has been a term for a difficult problem, and the phrase “cut the Gordian knot” has been a way to describe a direct and forceful solution to an apparently insurmountable difficulty.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 25, 2026 is: sacrosanct • SAK-roh-sankt • adjective Sacrosanct is a formal word that describes something too important and respected to be changed or criticized. It can also mean "most sacred or holy." // While the family's new matriarch aimed to maintain the familiar traditions of the holidays, she did not consider the details of their celebration to be sacrosanct. See the entry > Examples: "Sen. Paul Strommen of Sidney ... said there's no appetite among senators to empty the Veterans Aid Fund. 'There's certain things that are kind of sacrosanct, and veterans' aid is one of those things.'" — Todd von Kampen, The North Platte (Nebraska) Telegraph, 7 Mar. 2026 Did you know? Contrary to the beliefs of some, language is not sacrosanct; rather, it is subject to constant modification based on the needs, experiences, and even whims of those who use it. Take the word sacrosanct itself, which likely comes from the Latin phrase sacro sanctus meaning "made holy by a sacred rite." There's a definite semantic softening from that to the "too important and respected to be changed or criticized" meaning of sacrosanct. But holy moly, has sanctus led to a whole bunch of other English words with a truly pious flavor, from saint and sanctimony to sanctify and sanctuary. Sacrum ("a sacred rite"), source of the sacro in sacro sanctus, is no slouch either, living on in English anatomy as the name for our pelvic vertebrae—a shortening of os sacrum, which translates literally as "holy bone."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 24, 2026 is: onus • OH-nuss • noun Onus is a formal word typically used to refer to a responsibility, obligation, or burden. It is usually preceded by the word the. // Management has made it clear that the onus is on employees to ask for further training if they don't understand the new procedures. See the entry > Examples: “The [London Book Fair] comes the week before the government is due to deliver its progress report on AI and copyright, after proposals for a relaxation of existing laws caused outrage last year. Philippa Gregory, the novelist, described the plans for an ‘opt-out' policy, which puts the onus on writers to refuse permission for their work to be trawled, as akin to putting a sign on your front door asking burglars to pass by.” — The Guardian (London), 13 Mar. 2026 Did you know? Understanding the etymology of onus shouldn't be a burden; it's as simple as knowing that English borrowed the word—spelling, meaning, and all—from Latin in the 17th century. Onus is also a distant relative of the Sanskrit word anas, meaning cart (as in, a wheeled wagon or vehicle that carries a burden). English isn't exactly loaded with words that come from Latin onus, but onerous (“difficult and unpleasant to do or deal with”) is one, which is fitting since in addition to being synonymous with “burden,” onus has also long been used to refer to obligations and responsibilities that one may find annoying, taxing, disagreeable, or distasteful.