Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 24, 2016 is: domicile • \DAH-muh-syle\  • noun 1 : a dwelling place : place of residence : home 2 a : a person's fixed, permanent, and principal home for legal purposes b : the place where a corporation is actually or officially established Examples: "I got married, when I was 66, to David Bale.... I thought the women's movement has struggled for 25 ye...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 23, 2016 is: glaucous • \GLAW-kus\  • adjective 1 a : of a pale yellow-green color b : of a light bluish-gray or bluish-white color 2 : having a powdery or waxy coating that gives a frosted appearance and tends to rub off Examples: "Her eyes, a clear, glaucous gray, express unambiguous yearning." — Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 26 May 2016 "Waxy, h...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 22, 2016 is: frieze • \FREEZ\  • noun 1 : the part of an entablature between the architrave and the cornice 2 : a sculptured or richly ornamented band (as on a building or piece of furniture) 3 : a band, line, or series suggesting a frieze Examples: "The house commands a hilltop and is forbidding, imposing, but softened with a frieze of beautiful Ameri...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 21, 2016 is: evanescent • \ev-uh-NESS-unt\  • adjective : tending to vanish like vapor Examples: "As stunning as his dishes could be, in the end, the maestro understood its evanescent nature. Furstenberg remembers Richard telling him, 'It's supposed to be food.'" — Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post, 15 Aug. 2016 "I think because we are young, issues we...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 20, 2016 is: hoick • \HOIK\  • verb : to move or pull abruptly : yank Examples: "Occasionally he hoicks up the waistband of his trousers when he thinks no one is looking." — Elizabeth Day, The Observer, 24 Feb. 2015 "The flutist … looks forward, unfolding a retinue of futuristic techniques—sounds that purr like a cat, pop like a cork or hoick like a sp...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 19, 2016 is: colubrine • \KAHL-yuh-bryne\  • adjective 1 : of, relating to, or resembling a snake 2 : of or relating to a large cosmopolitan family (Colubridae) of chiefly nonvenomous snakes Examples: The trellis's latticework was covered with colubrine ivy. "Most of the colubrine snakes are entirely harmless, and are the common snakes that we meet eve...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 18, 2016 is: jacquerie • \zhah-kuh-REE\  • noun : (often capitalized Jacquerie) a peasants' revolt Examples: "There were no bloodthirsty sansculottes preparing to erect guillotines; nor were farmers, however angry about government excise taxes and other matters—as Shays's Rebellion suggested—ready to burn down the manorial estates of their feudal overl...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 17, 2016 is: ab initio • \ab-ih-NISH-ee-oh\  • adverb : from the beginning Examples: "Like many of contemporary architecture's most celebrated figures, [Zaha] Hadid is often presented as an artist who conceives her buildings entirely ab initio." — Ellis Woodman, The Daily Telegraph (London), 3 Sept. 2012 "Two months ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Fe...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 16, 2016 is: lavation • \lay-VAY-shun\  • noun : the act or an instance of washing or cleansing Examples: "… we cannot keep the skin healthy without frequent lavations of the whole body in pure water. It is impossible to calculate the benefits of this simple practice." — Walt Whitman, "Bathing, Cleanliness, Personal Beauty," June 1846 "In Maycomb Count...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 15, 2016 is: waggish • \WAG-ish\  • adjective 1 : resembling or characteristic of a wag : displaying good-humored mischief 2 : done or made for sport : humorous Examples: "A warm person who enjoys banter with often-waggish reporters, [Elizabeth] Brenner joked that her next move would be to take a newspaper-carrier route in Pewaukee. 'No, that's not wha...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 14, 2016 is: nemesis • \NEM-uh-siss\  • noun 1 a : one that inflicts retribution or vengeance b : a formidable and usually victorious rival or opponent 2 a : an act or effect of retribution b : a source of harm or ruin : curse Examples: "My nemesis was a young woman who, at the end of the film, had the honour of sending me to my doom at the bottom of a...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 13, 2016 is: univocal • \yoo-NIV-uh-kul\  • adjective 1 : having one meaning only 2 : unambiguous Examples: The president declared that it was important to send a univocal message of support to the beleaguered country. "Often cited as America's greatest indigenous art form, jazz wriggles away from any univocal definition, resisting the confines of a si...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 12, 2016 is: phlegmatic • \fleg-MAT-ik\  • adjective 1 : resembling, consisting of, or producing the humor phlegm 2 : having or showing a slow and stolid temperament Examples: "She said 'Good morning, Miss,' in her usual phlegmatic and brief manner; and taking up another ring and more tape, went on with her sewing." — Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 11, 2016 is: scion • \SYE-un\  • noun 1 : a detached living portion of a plant (as a bud or shoot) joined to a stock in grafting and usually supplying solely aerial parts to a graft 2 : descendant, child; especially : a descendant of a wealthy, aristocratic, or influential family 3 : heir Examples: "The duke was the billionaire owner of swaths of centr...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 10, 2016 is: roister • \ROY-ster\  • verb : to engage in noisy revelry : carouse Examples: Hugh didn't get much sleep last night because his neighbors were roistering until the wee hours of the morning. "North Highlands, apparently, is also what they call a part of Scotland where the prince's grandmum (the Queen Mother) kept a wee castle where the litt...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 9, 2016 is: odious • \OH-dee-us\  • adjective : arousing or deserving hatred or repugnance : hateful Examples: Volunteers gathered on Saturday morning to scrub away the odious graffiti spray-painted on the school. "I can't help being reminded of the progress we've made as a nation, as well as the odious past of slavery, the many men and women who have...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 8, 2016 is: truncate • \TRUNG-kayt\  • verb : to shorten by or as if by cutting off Examples: "Apparently, a federal law … requires printed credit card receipts truncate not only the credit card number, but also the expiration date." — Jack Greiner, The Cincinnati Enquirer, 28 Aug. 2016 "Google's own URL shortener service … instantly truncates the URL...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 7, 2016 is: macadam • \muh-KAD-um\  • noun : a roadway or pavement of small closely packed broken stone Examples: The sloping, curved street saw light traffic and had a smooth macadam surface that made it popular with skateboarders. "Littered on the beach are nearly a dozen big slabs of macadam and even larger chunks of concrete that have slid down the...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 6, 2016 is: vulnerary • \VUL-nuh-rair-ee\  • adjective : used for or useful in healing wounds Examples: "Rebecca examined the wound, and having applied to it such vulnerary remedies as her art prescribed, informed her father that if fever could be averted … there was nothing to fear for his guest's life, and that he might with safety travel to York wit...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 5, 2016 is: invective • \in-VEK-tiv\  • noun 1 : an abusive expression or speech 2 : insulting or abusive language : vituperation Examples: "The ongoing collapse of responsible broadcast and cable journalism and the explosive role that social media has assumed in this campaign have made for a nasty brew of invective, slurs and accusations…." — Susan J....

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 4, 2016 is: banausic • \buh-NAW-sik\  • adjective : relating to or concerned with earning a living — used pejoratively; also : utilitarian, practical Examples: "At the far end was a wooden board on which were hung saws, chisels, knives and other banausic instruments of the trade." — Sebastian Faulk, Human Traces, 2005 "That story is followed by a brill...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 3, 2016 is: guerdon • \GUR-dun\  • noun : reward, recompense Examples: "The big hurdle … was early promotion to captain. … This early promotion, this small dry irrevocable statistic in the record, was his guerdon for a quarter of a century of getting things done." — Herman Wouk, The Winds of War, 1971 "The guerdon in attending a repertory company's con...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 2, 2016 is: deliquesce • \del-ih-KWESS\  • verb 1 : to dissolve or melt away 2 : to become soft or liquid with age or maturity—used of some fungal structures (as the gills of a mushroom) Examples: "'Number Nine,' a 16-minute bonbon of a ballet …, keeps its yellow-clad ensemble and four principal couples wheeling through kaleidoscopic patterns that surp...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 1, 2016 is: empyreal • \em-pye-REE-ul\  • adjective 1 : of or relating to the heavens or firmament : celestial 2 : sublime Examples: Night after night, the comet shone brightly against the empyreal tapestry of the sky. "A jar made in Iraq, Syria or Iran, its shape is nothing special, but its color—an empyreal sapphire blue, a version of which will late...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 30, 2016 is: woebegone • \WOH-bih-gahn\  • adjective 1 : strongly afflicted with woe : woeful 2 a : exhibiting great woe, sorrow, or misery b : being in a sorry state Examples: "I simply wanted to be left alone to cry. I wanted the opposite of conversation, because for this brief, woebegone interlude, what was there to say?" — Wesley Morris, The New...