Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 5, 2010 is: corrode • \kuh-ROHD\  • verb 1 : to eat away by degrees as if by gnawing; especially : to wear away gradually usually by chemical action 2 : to weaken or destroy gradually : undermine 3 : to undergo corrosion Examples: Several sections of the pipe have corroded and will need to be replaced. "Power, the old saying goes, corrupts. It corrode...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 4, 2010 is: vociferous • \voh-SIF-uh-rus\  • adjective : marked by or given to vehement insistent outcry Examples: The toddler offered a vociferous protest when her mother scooped her up and carried her away from the lit menorah. "Citizens of the United States are vociferous about the right to freedom of speech, especially when it comes to entertainme...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 3, 2010 is: yips • \YIPS\  • noun : a state of nervous tension affecting an athlete (as a golfer) in the performance of a crucial action Examples: Afflicted with a sudden case of the yips, Doug tensed up and pulled his putt too far to the left. "[Texas manager Ron] Washington's team has the yips, pure and simple. The Rangers can't string together hits...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 2, 2010 is: ecotone • \EE-kuh-tohn\  • noun : a transition area between two adjacent ecological communities Examples: Cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds -- in particular, those located in the ecotones along the edges of a mature forest. "Thus for dung beetles examined in a Bolivian forest-savannah ecotone, almost complete turnover occ...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 1, 2010 is: plangent • \PLAN-junt\  • adjective 1 : having a loud reverberating sound 2 : having an expressive and especially plaintive quality Examples: The campers were awoken by the plangent howl of a coyote off in the distance. "Mr. Packard is the finest Candide I’ve seen, singing with rich, plangent tone and acting with an un-self-conscious since...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 30, 2010 is: cacophony • \ka-KAH-fuh-nee\  • noun : harsh or discordant sound : dissonance; specifically : harshness in the sound of words or phrases Examples: Feedback from the microphone produced an awful, shrieking cacophony equivalent to the sound of nails scratching on a blackboard. "Imagine a tent full of celebrities, artists and art patrons dre...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 29, 2010 is: beaucoup • \BOH-koo\  • adjective : great in quantity or amount : many, much Examples: The Johnsons clearly spent beaucoup bucks on their new kitchen, but it really did come out beautifully. "Virtually all of the recommendations in this piece call for a greater role for the government…. But it can't be just the government, since, as our k...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 28, 2010 is: disheveled • \dih-SHEV-uld\  • adjective : marked by disorder or disarray Examples: The young man's wrinkled suit gave him a disheveled appearance. "He looks vaguely familiar, almost like the team's starting quarterback, that Joe Flacco guy. But instead of Flacco's usual disheveled haircut, which generally looks like it was combed with sa...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 27, 2010 is: calumet • \KAL-yuh-met\  • noun : a highly ornamented ceremonial pipe of the American Indians Examples: The museum's Native American collection includes several calumets. "Trade encounters were marked by formal welcomes, oratory, gift exchange and feasting, ritually renewing the bonds between peoples. Participants sacralized relationships...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 26, 2010 is: frenetic • \frih-NET-ik\  • adjective : frenzied, frantic Examples: Frenetic holiday shoppers swarmed the aisles in search of bargains. "A mannered 80s-style TV debate, with no booing or clapping allowed, was accompanied by frenetic social media activity on Twitter and Facebook." -- From an article by Nicola Brittain in Computing, April 2...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 25, 2010 is: risible • \RIZZ-uh-bul\  • adjective 1 a : capable of laughing b : disposed to laugh 2 : arousing or provoking laughter; especially : laughable 3 : associated with, relating to, or used in laughter Examples: The teacher asked the class clown to keep his risible remarks to himself during the lesson. "Skeptics of the plan could make any num...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 24, 2010 is: tu quoque • \TOO-KWOH-kwee\  • noun : a retort charging an adversary with being or doing what he or she criticizes in others Examples: A good debater recognizes that resorting to a tu quoque only weakens one's position in the argument. "Thomas describes Williams's defense tactic as 'tu quoque' (you're another), basically the aggressive de...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 23, 2010 is: venerate • \VEN-uh-rayt\  • verb 1 : to regard with reverential respect or with admiring deference 2 : to honor (as an icon or a relic) with a ritual act of devotion Examples: Adoring fans venerated every item touched by the rock star's hands. "In just two terms, he has become an important voice in the House, an institution that normally...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 22, 2010 is: chrestomathy • \kreh-STAH-muh-thee\  • noun 1 : a selection of passages used to help learn a language 2 : a volume of selected passages or stories of an author Examples: The chrestomathy contains all of the author's short stories, along with a selection of essays on a wealth of subjects. "Wearing his best poker face (and no doubt having j...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 21, 2010 is: werewolf • \WAIR-woolf\  • noun : a person transformed into a wolf or capable of assuming a wolf's form Examples: She is particularly interested in folklore about vampires and werewolves. "American paranormal fans will soon have a new werewolf, vampire and ghost in their lives as SyFy preps for the U.S. installment of Being Human, as seen...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 20, 2010 is: alterity • \awl-TAIR-uh-tee\  • noun : otherness; specifically : the quality or state of being radically alien to the conscious self or a particular cultural orientation Examples: The novel focuses on the alterity experienced by adolescents, exploring how they both value and fear it. "This is the song which continues the theme of the rela...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 19, 2010 is: vanilla • \vuh-NILL-uh\  • adjective 1 : flavored with the extract of the vanilla bean 2 : lacking distinction : plain, ordinary, conventional Examples: Feeling a need to add some pizzazz to the vanilla décor in her office, Maria splurged on some colorful new lithographs. “I’m not going to sanitize what I do … I still want to be me, and b...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 18, 2010 is: eventuate • \ih-VEN-chuh-wayt\  • verb : to come out finally : result, come about Examples: No one could have prepared for the chaos that eventuated when the truth finally came to light. "The incident … occurred at a time of growing concern about the role of Internet chat rooms and other forums in giving a platform to disturbed young peop...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 17, 2010 is: banausic • \buh-NAW-sik\  • adjective : relating to or concerned with earning a living -- used pejoratively; also : utilitarian, practical Examples: The heiress dismissively declared that she would never have to worry about such banausic concerns as holding down a job. "At the far end was a wooden board on which were hung saws, chisels, k...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 16, 2010 is: crapulous • \KRAP-yuh-lus\  • adjective 1 : marked by intemperance especially in eating or drinking 2 : sick from excessive indulgence in liquor Examples: Most of the guests were still crapulous from the previous night's bacchic revelry. "They were crapulous and carrying blue cans of beer, one of them with a can in each hand." -- From Pau...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 15, 2010 is: paladin • \PAL-uh-din\  • noun 1 : a trusted military leader (as for a medieval prince) 2 : a leading champion of a cause Examples: No one was surprised when the famously outspoken animal-rights paladin chose to make an impromptu speech on the subject. "The poor children of Panama are lucky in that Lehman, acting as a paladin in their cau...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 14, 2010 is: propitiate • \proh-PISH-ee-ayt\  • verb : to gain or regain the favor or goodwill of : appease, conciliate Examples: The fans of the hard-luck baseball team wondered openly how to propitiate the gods of fate after yet another heartbreaking defeat. "Surely neither the Bush nor the Obama administrations intended consciously to act in the in...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 13, 2010 is: retrodict • \ret-ruh-DIKT\  • verb : to utilize present information or ideas to infer or explain (a past event or state of affairs) Examples: The technology enables scientists to retrodict past solar events and activities. "Paleontologists attempting to retrodict body mass from fossilized dental remains must be aware of the effect that sa...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 12, 2010 is: golden parachute • \GOHL-dun-PAIR-uh-shoot\  • noun : a generous severance agreement for a corporate executive in the event of a sudden dismissal (as because of a merger) Examples: When he was hired, John had insisted that his contract include a golden parachute to ensure that he could still live comfortably if his position was ever elimi...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 11, 2010 is: armistice • \AHR-muh-stus\  • noun : temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement between the opponents : truce Examples: The Korean War ended with an armistice signed in July of 1953, though a permanent peace accord was never reached. "Most of us learned in school that WWI ended either with the 1918 armistice agreement or the 1919 Tr...