Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 23, 2016 is: gravitate • \GRAV-uh-tayt\  • verb 1 : to move under the influence of gravitation 2 a : to move toward something b : to be drawn or attracted especially by natural inclination Examples: After we were finished with our second helpings of chili and cornbread, we naturally gravitated toward the dessert table to check out the sweeter offerings...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 22, 2016 is: rapscallion • \rap-SKAL-yun\  • noun : rascal, ne’er-do-well Examples: With his shaggy, perpetually unkempt hair and his charmingly crooked smile, the actor seems to have been born to play scamps and rapscallions. "Growing up, my best friends were my siblings. While we fought like only brother and sisters could fight, I was quick to defend...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 21, 2016 is: effete • \ih-FEET\  • adjective 1 : no longer fertile 2 a : having lost character, vitality, or strength b : marked by weakness or decadence c : soft or delicate from or as if from a pampered existence 3 : having feminine qualities untypical of a man : not manly in appearance or manner Examples: "Virginia Woolf is often depicted as a dream...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 20, 2016 is: thew • \THOO\  • noun 1 a : muscular power or development  b : strength, vitality 2 : muscle, sinew — usually used in plural Examples: "In Rocco's melodramatically murky illustrations, men and women alike display rippling thews and plenty of skin as they battle ravening monsters." — Kirkus Reviews, 22 July 2015 "As soon as his right arm re...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 19, 2016 is: expatiate • \ek-SPAY-shee-ayt\  • verb 1 : to move about freely or at will : wander 2 : to speak or write at length or in detail Examples: "By the time the Song Festival rep finished remarks, the orchestra staff promoted the raffle, and the conductor expatiated, it was 25 minutes into the afternoon before the oboe sounded the tuning A." —...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 18, 2016 is: eloquent • \EL-uh-kwunt\  • adjective 1 : marked by forceful and fluent expression 2 : vividly or movingly expressive or revealing Examples: Because Max is such an eloquent speaker, he was asked to give the toast at his grandfather's 75th birthday party. "The governor waxed eloquent about growing up just a short distance away in Queens and...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 17, 2016 is: nettle • \NET-ul\  • verb 1 : to strike or sting with or as if with nettles 2 : to arouse to sharp but transitory annoyance or anger Examples: "Steve Jobs may not have led Apple to global dominance if he'd had the company's new watch nettling him with notifications." — Alexander C. Kaufman, The Huffington Post, 14 Mar. 2015 "He seemed to h...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 16, 2016 is: qualm • \KWAHM\  • noun 1 : a sudden attack of illness, faintness, or nausea 2 : a sudden feeling of doubt, fear, or uneasiness especially in not following one's conscience or better judgment Examples: Some people have no qualms about correcting other people's grammar. "I also still do something that more than one passenger has found amazi...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 15, 2016 is: limn • \LIM\  • verb 1 : to draw or paint on a surface 2 : to outline in clear sharp detail : delineate 3 : describe Examples: In his Leatherstocking tales, James Fenimore Cooper limns the frontier adventures of wilderness scout Natty Bumppo. "More than 120 objects [in the museum exhibit] limn the achievements of the Andean empire in the 1...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 14, 2016 is: brogue • \BROHG\  • noun 1 : a heavy shoe often with a hobnailed sole 2 : a stout oxford shoe with perforations and usually a wing tip Examples: "Canvas isn't the chosen medium of many shoemakers, so it was a bit exciting and a bit confusing when Toms Shoes, purveyors of the ever-casual espadrilles, announced its intention to make brogues....

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 13, 2016 is: chirography • \kye-RAH-gruh-fee\  • noun 1 : handwriting, penmanship 2 : calligraphy Examples: "This envelope had the air of an official record of some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials than at present." — Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, 1850 "The stone bore co...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 12, 2016 is: procrastinate • \pruh-KRASS-tuh-nayt\  • verb 1 : to put off intentionally and habitually 2 : to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done Examples: Somehow, despite procrastinating, Melody managed to hand her assignment in on time. "You won't achieve [financial fitness] overnight or by happenstance, but by making re...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 11, 2016 is: mugwump • \MUG-wump\  • noun 1 : a bolter from the Republican party in 1884 2 : a person who is independent (as in politics) or who remains undecided or neutral Examples: "[Woodrow] Wilson was representative of a moderate progressivism that existed in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of this one. He was a mugwum...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 10, 2016 is: ignominious • \ig-nuh-MIN-ee-us\  • adjective 1 : marked with or characterized by disgrace or shame : dishonorable 2 : deserving of shame or infamy : despicable 3 : humiliating, degrading Examples: "[People's] first issue appeared in March of 1974—two years after the ignominious shuttering of the weekly Life—and it was an immediate sensati...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 9, 2016 is: fealty • \FEE-ul-tee\  • noun 1 a : the fidelity of a vassal or feudal tenant to his lord b : the obligation of such fidelity 2 : intense fidelity Examples: "The fealty of country music fans to their favorite stars is as strong as old-time religion." — Nicholas Dawidoff, The New Republic, 18 July 1994 "Mr. Keith was more of a rabble-rouser,...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 8, 2016 is: rugose • \ROO-gohss\  • adjective 1 : full of wrinkles 2 : having the veinlets sunken and the spaces between elevated Examples: The leaves of the plant are dark green and rugose. "I lost no time in asking directions of a stooped crone shuffling along the sleepy sidewalk, who turned her rugose visage towards me and shouted in a coarse and id...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 7, 2016 is: dross • \DRAHSS\  • noun 1 : the scum that forms on the surface of molten metal 2 : waste or foreign matter : impurity 3 : something that is base, trivial, or inferior Examples: "'Jerry on Jerry' may not be for the casual Grateful Dead fan. It takes some patience to wade through the dross of verbiage for the nuggets of wit and wisdom, but t...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 6, 2016 is: bogart • \BOH-gahrt\  • verb 1 : bully, intimidate 2 : to use or consume without sharing Examples: Three of the older girls bogarted the ice cream, ignoring the other girls' pleas for them to share. "Cornwell disputes the group's claim for April 19 and says it and other groups are bogarting the park by reserving Saturdays in the spring to p...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 5, 2016 is: shibboleth • \SHIB-uh-luth\  • noun 1 : catchword, slogan 2 : a widely held belief or truism 3 : a custom or usage regarded as distinctive of a particular group Examples: The town's name is a shibboleth: locals know its pronunciation does not reflect its French spelling but others use the Gallic pronunciation of the more famous European cit...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 4, 2016 is: uxorial • \uk-SOR-ee-ul\  • adjective : of, relating to, or characteristic of a wife Examples: "He watered the plants, cleared aspen leaves and debris from the rock garden, and cut the lawn … without any uxorial prompting." — Rois M. Beal, The Washington Post, 19 July 2007 "… the opera was 'Bluebeard's Castle,' a work based on the French fa...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 3, 2016 is: alacrity • \uh-LAK-ruh-tee\  • noun : promptness in response : cheerful readiness Examples: Jane is passionate about her job and performs her duties with enthusiasm and alacrity. "The second grader was there to get an anti-cavity sealant put on her six year molars, and she was comporting herself with an alacrity many adults don't share in a...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 2, 2016 is: quash • \KWAHSH\  • verb : to nullify especially by judicial action Examples: "A federal judge Friday quashed the subpoena for a reporter who wrote about the early termination of clinical trial for an Amgen drug because the company had not exhausted other possible ways to get the information." — Bartholomew Sullivan, The Ventura County (Cal...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 1, 2016 is: annus mirabilis • \ann-us-muh-RAH-buh-lus\  • noun : a remarkable or notable year Examples: "It has been an annus mirabilis for the college: the new dormitories were completed and we have increased enrollment to fill those buildings," announced the president. "If he wins the tournament today, for the fourth year in a row, he will have claim...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 31, 2015 is: reticulate • \rih-TIK-yuh-lut\  • adjective 1 : resembling a net or network 2 : being or involving evolutionary change dependent on genetic recombination involving diverse interbreeding populations Examples: The lizard had a reticulate pattern of markings on its back. "In the first decade of this century, though, I sensed a change in the...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 30, 2015 is: wormhole • \WERM-hohl\  • noun 1 : a hole or passage burrowed by a worm 2 : a hypothetical structure of space-time envisioned as a long thin tunnel connecting points that are separated in space and time Examples: Some science fiction writers speculate that wormholes will become the intergalactic highways of the future. "Sci-fi fans who ho...