Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 7, 2017 is: beguile • \bih-GHYLE\  • verb 1 : to lead by deception 2 : to deceive by cunning means 3 : to draw notice or interest by wiles or charm 4 : to cause (as time) to pass in a pleasant manner Examples: The carnival barker beguiled Ricky into buying a chance at the target-shooting game, even though it was all but impossible to win. "The elusive...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 6, 2017 is: factitious • \fak-TISH-us\  • adjective 1 : produced by humans rather than by natural forces 2 a : formed by or adapted to an artificial or conventional standard b : produced by special effort : sham Examples: "For all the factitious factoids about state education spending, the reality from the federal government and even the nation's large...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 5, 2017 is: maelstrom • \MAIL-strum\  • noun 1 : a powerful often violent whirlpool sucking in objects within a given radius 2 : something resembling a maelstrom in turbulence Examples: The mayor has been swept up in the media maelstrom surrounding the laundering of thousands of dollars in state funds by city officials. "The dark eye of Saturn's northe...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 4, 2017 is: deem • \DEEM\  • verb 1 : to come to think or judge : consider 2 : to have an opinion : believe Examples: The covered bridge was closed to automobile traffic for the winter because town officials deemed it a hazard to motorists. "Being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature is something I never could have imagined or seen coming. From an ea...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 3, 2017 is: oligopsony • \ah-luh-GAHP-suh-nee\  • noun : a market situation in which each of a few buyers exerts a disproportionate influence on the market Examples: The small number of supermarkets in the region has created an oligopsony in which the stores can dictate the price they pay to farmers for meat and fresh produce. "Under the crude oil expo...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 2, 2017 is: baleful • \BAIL-ful\  • adjective 1 : deadly or pernicious in influence 2 : foreboding or threatening evil Examples: "His face might have been chiselled out of marble, so hard and set was its expression, while its eyes glowed with a baleful light." — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, 1887 "Out of nowhere, a huge fad sweeps the cou...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 1, 2017 is: rejuvenate • \rih-JOO-vuh-nayt\  • verb 1 : to make young or youthful again : give new vigor to 2 : to restore to an original or new state Examples: The new arts complex and adjacent businesses have rejuvenated the city and turned downtown into a destination for visitors. "I was drained. When I started thinking about doing another album, I...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 31, 2016 is: zeitgeist • \TSYTE-gyste\  • noun : (often capitalized Zeitgeist) the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era Examples: The movie does an excellent job of capturing the zeitgeist of the dot-com boom. "The people making the product are the same demographic as the people using the product. They don't have to rely on rese...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 30, 2016 is: solicitous • \suh-LIS-uh-tus\  • adjective 1 : showing attentive care or protectiveness : manifesting or expressing solicitude 2 : full of concern or fears : apprehensive 3 : meticulously careful 4 : full of desire : eager Examples: Lyle has developed a reputation as one of the best tailors in the area because he is solicitous of his cust...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 29, 2016 is: beleaguer • \bih-LEE-gur\  • verb 1 : to cause distress to : besiege 2 : trouble, harass Examples: Despite being beleaguered by injuries, the scrappy football team fought hard and managed to make the playoffs. "We must work to implement reforms like the Baltimore Metropolitan Council's Plan for Sustainable Development that offer practical...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 28, 2016 is: ultima • \UL-tuh-muh\  • noun : the last syllable of a word Examples: For the last line of her poem, Sheila needed a word with an ultima that rhymed with "green," so she tried "magazine." "A grave accent can occur only on the ultima." — Rodney J. Decker, Reading Koine Greek, 2015 Did you know? In Latin, ultima is the feminine form of the...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 27, 2016 is: veridical • \vuh-RID-ih-kul\  • adjective 1 : truthful, veracious 2 : not illusory : genuine Examples: "All psychotherapies are based on the fact that memory is not veridical, that unconscious desires and fantasies exert their force on us all.…" — Henry Kaminer, The Weekly Standard, 31 July 2000 "In this book, therefore, 'perception' is u...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 26, 2016 is: Kwanzaa • \KWAHN-zuh\  • noun : an African-American cultural festival held from December 26 to January 1 Examples: A joyous family spirit pervaded the Allen family's Kwanzaa celebration as three generations came together for a delightful meal and a beautiful candle-lighting ceremony. "The dynamic, multicultural Forces of Nature Dance Comp...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 25, 2016 is: wassail • \WAH-sul\  • verb 1 : to indulge in riotous drinking : carouse 2 : (dialectal, England) to sing carols from house to house at Christmas 3 : to drink to the health or thriving of Examples: Every year at Christmastime the magazine publishes a recipe for a traditional drink that can be used to wassail one's friends, neighbors, and...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 24, 2016 is: dreidel • \DRAY-dul\  • noun 1 : a 4-sided toy marked with Hebrew letters and spun like a top in a game of chance 2 : a children's game of chance played especially at Hanukkah with a dreidel Examples: The adults chatted in the living room while the children amused themselves by playing dreidel. "He has bought a range of items, including a...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 23, 2016 is: ruminate • \ROO-muh-nayt\  • verb 1 : to engage in contemplation : meditate 2 : to chew again what has been chewed slightly and swallowed : chew the cud Examples: For her final column of the year, Francine ruminated on the subject of new beginnings. "The presence of large forage particles or undigested grains may indicate that cows are no...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 22, 2016 is: crepuscular • \krih-PUHSS-kyuh-ler\  • adjective 1 : of, relating to, or resembling twilight : dim 2 : occurring or active during the twilight Examples: "After dinner they went out on the terrace for a look at the moon-misted park. Through the crepuscular whiteness the trees hung in blotted masses." — Edith Wharton, The Reef, 1912 "Rabbit...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 21, 2016 is: purlieu • \PERL-yoo\  • noun 1 a : an outlying or adjacent district b : (plural) environs, neighborhood 2 a : a frequently visited place : haunt b : (plural) confines, bounds Examples: "The boy, desperately nervous, continued to descend the zig-zag paths that would take him into the very purlieus of his father's house." — Ford Madox Ford,...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 20, 2016 is: eternize • \ih-TER-nyze\  • verb 1 a : to make eternal  b : to prolong indefinitely 2 : immortalize Examples: The photograph eternizes the joy that Colin felt when he held his daughter in his arms for the first time. "Sometimes it seems that Hopper (1882-1967) could have eternized almost any undistinguished moment of introspection or inac...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 19, 2016 is: nosocomial • \nah-suh-KOH-mee-ul\  • adjective : acquired or occurring in a hospital Examples: A minor nosocomial outbreak of the disease occurred when doctors failed to diagnose the infected patient's illness in time. "… there are things we handle a lot and never really clean. One study, for instance, found that about 95 percent of mobil...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 18, 2016 is: gallimaufry • \gal-uh-MAW-free\  • noun : a heterogeneous mixture : jumble Examples: The essay collection covers a gallimaufry of subjects, from stamp collecting to Portuguese cooking. "Upon entering the gallery, one of the first things that catches my eye is a gallimaufry of vibrant, oversized collages." — Rosalie Spear, The Las Vegas We...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 17, 2016 is: lave • \LAYV\  • verb 1 a : wash, bathe b : to flow along or against 2 : pour Examples: "The captain walked up past the horses holding his arm and he knelt and drank and laved water over the back of his neck with his good hand." — Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992 "On that first day she rode out to the beach on the ocean side o...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 16, 2016 is: impetuous • \im-PECH-uh-wus\  • adjective 1 : marked by impulsive vehemence or passion  2 : marked by force and violence of movement or action Examples: The impetuous winds forced the hikers to postpone their expedition to the mountain's peak. "… you care so much that you want to get it right and you're not going to indulge in either impe...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 15, 2016 is: jubilee • \JOO-buh-lee\  • noun 1 : (often capitalized Jubilee) a year of emancipation and restoration provided by ancient Hebrew law to be kept every 50 years by the emancipation of Hebrew slaves, restoration of alienated lands to their former owners, and omission of all cultivation of the land 2 : a special anniversary; especially : a 5...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 14, 2016 is: kapellmeister • \kuh-PELL-mye-ster\  • noun : (often capitalized Kapellmeister) the director of a choir or orchestra Examples: The Kapellmeister brought his hands up slowly to signal to the musicians a shift to a slower tempo. "Schwader joined them onstage for an account of the apparently dagger-toting Johann Sebastian Bach's tussle with...