Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2024 is: dynasty • \DYE-nuh-stee\  • noun Dynasty refers to a group (such as a team, family, etc.) that is very powerful or successful for a long period of time. It is also often used for a family of rulers who rule over a country for a long period of time, as well as the period of time when a particular dynasty is in power. // The team’s draft picks reflected the ownership’s strategy of building a long-term football dynasty. See the entry > Examples: “The Vanderberg dynasty was in steel, railroads and textiles as well as munitions. Their money was so old that it underlay the United States like geology. Before there had been a United States, in fact, there had been Vanderbergs and they had already been rich.” — Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz: A Novel, 2024 Did you know? Dynasty has had quite the run in English. For over 600 years it’s been used to refer to a ruling family that

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2024 is: obstreperous • \ub-STREP-uh-rus\  • adjective Obstreperous is a formal word that describes people or things that stubbornly resist control; in this use it’s a synonym of unruly. A person or thing described as obstreperous may also be defiantly or aggressively noisy. // The moment the paper airplane landed, the instructor addressed the unruly class, telling them in the harshest tone that obstreperous conduct would not be tolerated. See the entry > Examples: “In the 1887 essay ‘Silent People as Misjudged by the Noisy,’ an Atlantic contributor proposed an economical approach to talking: ‘As we get on in life past the period of obstreperous youth, we incline to talk less and write less, especially on the topics which we have most at heart,’ the writer noted. ‘We are beginning to realize the uselessness of perpetually talking … If there is a thing to be said, we prefer to wait and say it

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 28, 2024 is: gadfly • \GAD-flye\  • noun In literal use, gadfly refers to any of various flies (such as a horsefly, botfly, or warble fly) that bite or annoy livestock. Gadfly is most popular in figurative use, however, where it refers to someone who provokes or annoys other people especially by persistent criticism. // The journalist was known as a gadfly for exposing hypocrisy in politics. See the entry > Examples: "For years, the [L.A. County Board of Supervisors] has regularly had a 'performance evaluation' scheduled for closed session on its agenda. Any reporter or gadfly worth their salt knew this was actually just a time for the board to call a department head onto the carpet and scream at them behind closed doors." — Jaclyn Cosgrove, The Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2023 Did you know? It's easy to guess what puts the fly in gadfly: in its oldest meaning, fly refers to a winged

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 27, 2024 is: glean • \GLEEN\  • verb To glean is to gather or collect something bit by bit, or in a gradual way. Glean can also be used to mean “to search (something) carefully” and “to find out.” // Neil has a collection of antique tools gleaned from flea markets and garage sales. // They spent days gleaning the files for information. // The police used old-fashioned detective work to glean his whereabouts. See the entry > Examples: “Not only did procuring money to maintain her company figure in Graham’s acceptance of the occasional theater job during the 1930s; perhaps, too, she thought that being associated with a successful play could bring new audiences to her dance performances. There can be no doubt that she gleaned something from each experience outside the rigorous and profoundly idiosyncratic works she created for her company, even if she learned that there were some projects she would

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 26, 2024 is: symposium • \sim-POH-zee-um\  • noun Symposium can refer either to a formal meeting at which experts discuss a particular topic, or to a collection of articles on a particular subject. Symposium has two plural forms: symposia and symposiums. // Professors and graduate students attended a three-day symposium on climate change. // The organization will be publishing a symposium on genetic research. See the entry > Examples: “In 1966, at a meeting remembered in anthropological lore as the beginning of hunter-gatherer studies, seventy-five experts assembled in Chicago to synthesize our knowledge about foraging peoples. More than ninety-nine per cent of human history was spent without agriculture, the organizers figured, so it was worth documenting that way of life before it disappeared altogether. The symposium—and an associated volume that appeared two years later, both titled ‘Man the

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 25, 2024 is: countermand • \KOUNT-er-mand\  • verb To countermand an order is to revoke it, especially by giving a new order. // Orders to blow up the bridge were countermanded by local officials. See the entry > Examples: "He [rugby player Lewis Jones] almost missed his 1950 Welsh debut as he was about to board an aircraft carrier for Hong Kong before the orders were countermanded." — The Daily Telegraph (London), 9 Mar. 2024 Did you know? In the military, one's mandate is to follow the commands (and sometimes the countermands) of the officers. Doing their bidding is not particularly commendable—it's simply mandatory. The Latin verb mandare, meaning "to entrust" or "to order," is the authority behind countermand. It's also behind the words mandate, command, demand, commend (which can mean "to entrust" as well as "to praise"), and mandatory. Countermand came to English via Anglo Fr

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 24, 2024 is: ebullient • \ih-BULL-yunt\  • adjective If someone or something is appealingly lively and enthusiastic, they may also be described as ebullient. // Akua's ebullient personality made her the life of the party. See the entry > Examples: "[Les] McCann, who would later serve as a drummer and horn player in his high-school marching band, soon developed a love for the great symphonies and for distinctive rhythm and blues vocal stylists such as Bullmoose Jackson, Billy Eckstine and Louis Jordan. But it was the ebullient gospel music he heard at his local Baptist church that touched him the deepest. 'That was the foundation, the basis for all of my knowledge,' says McCann, whose rollicking piano work still bears a strong gospel tinge." — George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Jan. 2024 Did you know? Someone who is ebullient is bubbling over with enthusiasm, so it shoul

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2024 is: panoply • \PAN-uh-plee\  • noun Panoply is a formal word that refers to a group or collection that is impressive either because of its size or because it includes so many different kinds of people or things. // The new website offers shoppers a panoply of snack foods, soft drinks, and other treats from around the world. See the entry > Examples: “Given that all of us, in our daily lives, are constantly confronted by a limitless confusion of knowledge … one can say that all of us are being educated all the while, and that education is in its essence the business of any transmission of knowledge from one party to another. … No part of this vast panoply of knowledge diffusion is more important for the future of human society than that which passes in one direction, downward across the generations, from the older members of a society to the younger.” — Simon Winchester, Knowing What We Kn

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 22, 2024 is: belie • \bih-LYE\  • verb To belie something is to give a false idea or impression of it. Belie can also mean "to show (something) to be false or wrong." // Martin's easy banter and relaxed attitude belied his nervousness. // Their actions belie their claim of innocence. See the entry > Examples: "But his humble presence belies the adventurous life that brought him through World War II and multiple attempts at sailing around the world." — Alejandra Garcia, The Sacramento (California) Bee, 21 Dec. 2020 Did you know? "What is a lie?" asks Lord Byron in Don Juan. He then answers himself: "'Tis but the truth in masquerade...." The history of belie illustrates a certain connection between lying and masquerading as something other than one is. In Old English, belie meant "to deceive by lying," but in time, it came to mean "to tell lies about," taking on a sense similar to t

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 21, 2024 is: neophyte • \NEE-uh-fyte\  • noun A neophyte is a person who has just started learning or doing something. // As an acting neophyte, Femi took a while to adjust to his newfound Hollywood fame. See the entry > Examples: "First premiering in 2006, Ugly Betty … built up a devoted fanbase. The series, which is now streaming on Netflix, starred Ferrera as the titular 'Ugly' Betty Suarez, a braces-wearing 22-year-old fashion neophyte from Queens." — Alec Bojalad, Den of Geek, 4 Aug. 2023 Did you know? Neophyte is hardly a new addition to the English language—it's been part of the English vocabulary since the 14th century. It traces back through Late Latin to the Greek word neophytos, meaning "newly planted" or "newly converted." These Greek and Latin roots were directly transplanted into the early English uses of neophyte, which first referred to a person newly converted to