Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 26, 2017 is: indigenous • \in-DIJ-uh-nuss\  • adjective 1 : having originated in and being produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment 2 : innate, inborn Examples: "In all its forms, stone speaks of timelessness, solidity and quality. Indigenous local versions invariably work well as a construction material...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 25, 2017 is: hoary • \HOR-ee\  • adjective 1 : gray or white with or as if with age 2 : extremely old : ancient Examples: The lichen gives the rocks a hoary appearance. "Take encouragement from this hoary truth: No matter how bad things get, you can always make them worse." — Paul McHugh, The Sacramento (California) Bee, 19 Dec. 2016 Did you know? "Ho...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 24, 2017 is: kudos • \KOO-dahss\  • noun 1 : fame and renown resulting from an act or achievement : prestige 2 : praise given for achievement Examples: "I'd like to be a widow. Then I'd have the freedom of the unmarried, with the kudos of the married. I could eat my cake and have it, too. Oh, to be a widow!" — Lucy Maud Montgomery, "The End of a Quarr...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 23, 2017 is: finesse • \fuh-NESS\  • verb 1 : to make a finesse in playing cards : to play (a card) in a finesse 2 a : to bring about, direct, or manage by adroit maneuvering b : evade, skirt Examples: "No author can finesse wry, homespun humor better than Fannie Flagg …, whose main claim to literary fame remains the award-winning 'Fried Green Tomatoe...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 22, 2017 is: mayhap • \MAY-hap\  • adverb : possibly but not certainly : perhaps Examples: "The very footmen sometimes grinned too broadly, the maidservants giggled mayhap too loud, and a provoking air of intelligence seemed to pervade the whole family." — Sir Walter Scott, Waverly, 1814 "Mayhap this thought will lead to another, that perhaps we shoul...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 21, 2017 is: distaff • \DISS-taff\  • adjective 1 a : related through a mother b : inherited or derived from the female parent 2 : female Examples: "Lord Robert Walsingham de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.… The Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tu...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 20, 2017 is: onus • \OH-nuss\  • noun 1 : burden 2 : a disagreeable necessity : obligation 3 : blame 4 : stigma Examples: Management has made it clear that the onus is on employees to ask for further training if they don't understand the new procedures. "I feel very fortunate that I never got into this business as a beauty queen. Even back in high sch...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 19, 2017 is: bemuse • \bih-MYOOZ\  • verb 1 : to make confused : puzzle, bewilder 2 : to occupy the attention of : distract, absorb 3 : to cause to have feelings of wry or tolerant amusement Examples: She had neither asked for nor expected her newfound celebrity, and was bemused by all the attention she was receiving. "I have no interest in bemusing a...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 18, 2017 is: protean • \PROH-tee-un\  • adjective 1 : of or resembling Proteus in having a varied nature or ability to assume different forms 2 : displaying great diversity or variety : versatile Examples: "Together, the paintings demonstrate Picasso's protean ability to slip into new visual languages to suit the occasion, his subject and his own whim...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 17, 2017 is: cachet • \ka-SHAY\  • noun 1 : a seal used especially as a mark of official approval 2 : a characteristic feature or quality conferring prestige; also : standing or estimation in the eyes of people : prestige 3 : a design, inscription, or advertisement printed or stamped on mail Examples: "It's been 70 years and the Sweetheart City is sti...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 16, 2017 is: sward • \SWORD\  • noun 1 : a portion of ground covered with grass 2 : the grassy surface of land Examples: "It was a blind and despairing rush by the collection of men in dusty and tattered blue, over a green sward and under a sapphire sky, toward a fence, dimly outlined in smoke, from behind which spluttered the fierce rifles of enemies...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 15, 2017 is: voluble • \VAHL-yuh-bul\  • adjective 1 : easily rolling or turning : rotating 2 : characterized by ready or rapid speech : glib, fluent Examples: Having worked as a teacher for almost twenty years, Pamela was voluble on the subject of education. "At 78, the Dutch-born director is generous and voluble, feeling his way through conversation...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 14, 2017 is: billet-doux • \bill-ee-DOO\  • noun : a love letter Examples: While cleaning out her parents' basement, Amy stumbled upon a box containing billets-doux written by her dad to his high-school sweetheart—her mom. "… when you stop to think about it the entire panoply of behaviours we consider as romantic, from sending little billets-doux, to...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 13, 2017 is: transpontine • \trans-PAHN-tyne\  • adjective 1 : situated on the farther side of a bridge 2 : (British) situated on the south side of the Thames Examples: Traffic on the Tobin Bridge was at a near standstill, and it took us twenty minutes to reach our transpontine destination in Charlestown. "The moment Waterloo Bridge was planned across...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 12, 2017 is: weltanschauung • \VELT-ahn-show-ung ("ow" as in "cow")\  • noun : (often capitalized Weltanschauung) a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world especially from a specific standpoint Examples: "In my personal Weltanschauung, there is nothing wrong with arm hair, giant headphones are silly and skin-lightening products are creep...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 11, 2017 is: ragtag • \RAG-tag\  • adjective 1 : ragged, unkempt 2 : composed of diverse often incongruous elements : motley Examples: "Cyndi Lauper was one of the biggest stars of the '80's MTV era…. Her girlish voice and gleefully ragtag appearance became one of the most distinctive images of the time, which helped catapult her to stardom." — The Ar...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 10, 2017 is: adjure • \uh-JOOR\  • verb 1 : to command solemnly under or as if under oath or penalty of a curse 2 : to urge or advise earnestly Examples: The church has strong ties to the community and has long adjured its congregants to devote time to the aid of those less fortunate than themselves. "Byron fled the country, adjuring Annabella to 'be...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 9, 2017 is: peradventure • \PER-ud-ven-cher\  • noun 1 : doubt 2 : the possibility of a particular outcome in an uncertain situation : chance Examples: "When Henry had his servant brought to him from Argentan more dead than alive, he suffered an Angevin fury. But he knew beyond peradventure that the rebellion had been reborn." — Amy Kelly, Eleanor of...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 8, 2017 is: carceral • \KAHR-suh-rul\  • adjective : of, relating to, or suggesting a jail or prison Examples: "The door opened, whining, rattling and groaning in keeping with all the rules of carceral counterpoint." — Vladimir Nabokov, Invitation to a Beheading, 1959 "We are in the midst of a debate around criminal justice right now…. In the midst of...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 7, 2017 is: nexus • \NEK-sus\  • noun 1 : connection, link; also : a causal link 2 : a connected group or series 3 : center, focus Examples: The new art exhibition is devoted to those artists whose work first began to form a nexus between high art and popular culture. "Starting a weekly column about the nexus between media, technology, culture and pol...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 6, 2017 is: extremophile • \ik-STREE-muh-fyle\  • noun : an organism that lives under extreme environmental conditions (as in a hot spring or ice cap) Examples: "Beetles with antifreeze blood, ants that sprint on scorching sand and spiders that live high up Mount Everest. These incredible creatures are the extremophiles: animals that survive some of t...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 5, 2017 is: luculent • \LOO-kyuh-lunt\  • adjective : clear in thought or expression Examples: The professor gave a luculent introduction to quantum mechanics.  "These glimpses of the Crown-Prince, reflected on us in this manner, are not very luculent to the reader … but some features do gleam forth, good and not so good; which, with others coming, ma...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 4, 2017 is: grandee • \grand-DEE\  • noun : a man of elevated rank or station; especially : a Spanish or Portuguese nobleman of the first rank Examples: After winning the golf tournament, the young player shook hands and posed for pictures with the grandees who had supplied the prize fund. "People from around the nation and the world, who could not af...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 3, 2017 is: abyssal • \uh-BISS-ul\  • adjective 1 : of or relating to the bottom waters of the ocean depths 2 : impossible to comprehend : unfathomable Examples: "Since the accident, researchers from the Guangzhou Institute of Oceanology have mapped several deep eddies in the Xisha Trough, an area of abyssal ocean off Hainan." — David Hambling, The Gu...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 2, 2017 is: imprecate • \IM-prih-kayt\  • verb : to invoke evil on : curse Examples: "Mallory imprecated the weather when the ink froze in his fountain pen…." — Stanley Snaith, At Grips with Everest, 1938 "The people would pause, look out at the Missouri rolling past and quietly carrying down trees like doomed pinnaces, and the workers' sweating brows...