Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 31, 2025 is:

penchant • \PEN-chunt\  • noun

Penchant refers to a strong liking for something, or a strong tendency to behave in a certain way. It is usually used with for.

// My penchant for mathematics helped me become an engineer.

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Examples:

"Sly Lives! is exceptionally strong in its attention to musical detail—even more than Questlove's previous cinematic effort, the Academy Award–winning Summer of Soul, Sly Lives! feels like a film made by a great musician. The film's interviewees offer illuminating ruminations on Sly's vocal arrangements, including his penchant for switching back and forth between unison vocal parts and harmonized ones ..." — Jack Hamilton, Slate, 13 Feb. 2025

Did you know?

English has multiple p-words that imply a strong instinct or liking for something, including propensity and proclivity, but to keep things precise, penchant is the proper word for implying a pronounced, persistent taste in a person ("a penchant for pretty pendants") or a predominant predilection for performing particular actions ("a penchant for petting penguins"). Penchant traces back all the way to the Latin verb pendere, meaning "to weigh," but is more immediately preceded in English by the French word penchant, from the present participle of pencher, meaning "to incline."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 30, 2025 is:

untoward • \un-TOH-erd\  • adjective

Untoward is a formal word that describes something that is improper or inappropriate, or that is adverse or unfavorable.

// The medication is safe and effective, with no known untoward side effects.

// The investigation found that nothing untoward had happened at the event.

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Examples:

“You might be thinking that the best course of action would be to make sure that any such generative AI is completely unable to spew out any kind of untoward content. Just do whatever ... AI trickery is needed to ensure that the good stuff is emitted and the bad stuff is kept under lock and key. ... The rub is that trying to simultaneously have generative AI that appears to be fluent and capable in composing natural language and yet also can refrain from emitting the bad stuff is a lot harder of a problem than you might assume.” — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 1 May 2023

Did you know?

For centuries, the adjective toward described “forward-moving” youngsters, the kind who showed promise and were open to listening to their elders. The adjective then came to mean amiable or obliging. The opposite of this now-obsolete sense of toward is froward, meaning “disobedient.” Froward has fallen out of common use, but thankfully another toward antonym, untoward, obliged in picking up the slack. In addition to describing people or things that are “difficult to guide, manage, or work with,” untoward today is applied to that which is unfavorable or adverse, as well as to things that are inappropriate or in bad taste.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 29, 2025 is:

elucidate • \ih-LOO-suh-dayt\  • verb

To elucidate something is to make it clear or easy to understand.

// The writer elucidates complex medical findings for a general audience.

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Examples:

“Building flexible classrooms gives the building a lifespan beyond one class or even one era of pedagogy, which, as [Lee] Fertig elucidates, are sure to evolve.” — Maya Chawla, Architectural Digest, 25 Sep. 2024

Did you know?

In 1974, the discovery of a remarkably intact Australopithecus skeleton elucidated a key moment in human evolution. She was famously nicknamed Lucy in reference to the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” but we’d still love Lucy were it simply an homage to the light she shed. You see, the Latin luc- or lux puts the “light” in many English utterances (including the name Lucy). Take, for instance, lucent (“glowing with light”), luculent (“clear in thought or expression”), luciferous (“bringing light or insight”), lucid (“clear, sane, intelligible”), and elucidate (“to make clear or understandable”). Those last two words come from the Latin lucidus, which literally translates to “lucid.” Lucidus, in turn, comes from the verb lucēre, meaning “to shine.” Elucidating, therefore, can be thought of as the figurative equivalent of shining a light on something to make it easier to see.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 28, 2025 is:

derelict • \DAIR-uh-likt\  • adjective

Derelict is a formal word that describes something that is no longer cared for or used by anyone. It can also describe someone who is negligent or who fails to do what needs to be done.

// The kids made sure to stay away from the spooky derelict houses in the neighborhood on Halloween.

// The officers were charged with being derelict in their duty.

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Examples:

"In a movie that spends most of its time confined to the disorienting guts of a derelict spaceship, tracking Kenneth's de-evolution from Kennedy wannabe to a used car salesman version of Colonel Kurtz is often the only moral compass we have to find our way towards a better tomorrow." — David Ehrlich, Indie Wire, 15 Feb. 2025

Did you know?

The Latin verb relinquere, meaning "to leave behind," left English with a number of words, including derelict. Something derelict has been left behind, or at least appears that way. In another sense, someone who is derelict leaves behind or neglects their duties or obligations. Another descendant of relinquere is relinquish, meaning "to leave behind," "to give up," or "to release." Relic also ultimately comes from relinquere. Relics, in the original sense of the term, are things treasured for their association with a saint or martyr—that is, objects saints and martyrs left behind. Relinquere also gives English its name for the containers or shrines which hold relics, reliquary.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 27, 2025 is:

archetype • \AHR-kih-type\  • noun

Archetype refers to someone or something that is seen to be a perfect example. It is also a word for the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies.

// The college’s most popular philosophy professor is the archetype of the preoccupied academic, complete with the messy desk, disheveled hair, and brilliant theories.

// The film is considered a sci-fi archetype for its pioneering use of special effects and prosthetics to depict an alien world.

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Examples:

“One of the most notable features of folktales, fairy tales, myths, and legends are their simplicity. These stories, many of them passed down to us across generations, are compelling because of the recognizable archetypes they incorporate (the evil stepmother, the dutiful daughter, the greedy king, etc.), their straightforward moral arcs, and their use of magic and transformation as catalysts for the plot.” — Gina Chung, LitHub.com, 13 Mar. 2024

Did you know?

In her 2024 book Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, author Naomi Klein writes that “the doppelganger archetype has appeared across time to explore issues of life and death, the body versus the soul, the ego versus the id …” Klein doesn’t mean that the same double, evil twin, or changeling keeps popping up throughout history, of course, but that the original concept of a doppelganger has served as a pattern, model, or template for writers to use in different ways, each supplying it with their own imagined details. Archetype’s origins are in two Greek words: the verb archein, meaning “to begin,” and the noun typos, meaning “type.” Since its debut in English in the mid-1500s, archetype has taken on uses specific to the ideas of Plato, John Locke, and Carl Jung, but in everyday prose, archetype is most commonly used to mean “a perfect example,” as in “Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is considered an archetype of doppelganger fiction.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 26, 2025 is:

flippant • \FLIP-unt\  • adjective

Something described as flippant, such as behavior or a comment, is lacking in proper respect or seriousness.

// The celebrity made a flippant remark when questioned about the scandal.

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Examples:

"While the show seems to take a flippant attitude to the neatly packaged solutions offered by wellness tourism, I'm curious to see what it makes of these treatments' underlying Buddhist and Hindu philosophies." — Kate Gordon, The Case Western Reserve Observer, 28 Feb. 2025

Did you know?

Consider the spatula, humble friend to many a cook: admire the pliancy with which it flips pancakes, eggs, your more wieldy cuts of meat. We’re not being flippant—that is, facetious or smart-alecky—utensils are important, and spatulas are particularly useful for understanding the origins of flippant. Flippant is believed to come from the English verb flip, which, in turn, is a supposed imitation of the sound of something (say, a flapjack) flipping. The earliest uses of flippant described flexible things (like a spatula) or nimble, spry people, capable of moving this way and that with ease. Soon enough, flippant began to be used not only for people fluent in their movements, but those whose words flow easily. To be this kind of flippant was once a good thing; however, as people who speak freely can sometimes speak more freely than propriety permits, English users eventually flipped the script on flippant, and the positive sense fell into disuse, bending to the "disrespectful" sense we know today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 25, 2025 is:

hobbit • \HAH-bit\  • noun

A hobbit is a member of a fictitious peaceful and friendly race of small humanlike creatures that dwell underground.

// The story was filled with all sorts of imaginary people, including hobbits.

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Examples:

"Hobbits were no part of Tolkien's original plan. They entered rather late and through a side door, as the unexpected central characters in a children's story, The Hobbit, which Tolkien invented for his own children but which found an immediate and lasting worldwide audience. And of which The Lord of the Rings was the commissioned, long-awaited and trebly successful sequel." — Verlyn Flieger, LitHub.com, 24 June 2024

Did you know?

"What is a hobbit?" wrote J.R.R. Tolkien in the 1937 fantasy novel that introduced Mr. Bilbo Baggins. The author then answered himself: "They are (or were) little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. ... There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along ..." Tolkien tells us that hobbits "are inclined to be fat," and that they "dress in bright colours"; they "have good-natured faces, and deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner)." Tolkien, a professional linguist who taught at Oxford, coined the word hobbit (and many other terms—in fact, a whole new language) for The Hobbit and for his enormously popular three-part novel The Lord of the Rings.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 24, 2025 is:

garble • \GAR-bul\  • verb

To garble something, such as a word, name, message, etc., is to cause it to be unclear or distorted. This type of garbling can be the result of an accident, ignorance, or a transmission error. Garble can also mean "to so alter or distort as to create a wrong impression or change the meaning."

// I was so nervous I garbled their names.

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Examples:

"Noisy environments and interruptions garbled the audio or led to the services transcribing voices of people in the office who weren’t in our meeting." — Danielle Abril, The Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2023

Did you know?

Garble is a word with a spicy history, and we're not just saying that to curry favor with gastronomes. It is presumed that this word was passed from Arabic to Mediterranean Europe through trade in Eastern spices, and was first introduced into English from the Anglo-French verb garbeler, used for the action of sifting out impurities—such as dust, dirt, husks, etc.—from spices. In the 15th century, the English garble carried this same meaning as well as "to cull," i.e., to sort or pick out the best parts of something. If these origins seem curious given garble’s now more common meanings of "to so alter or distort as to create a wrong impression" and "to cause to be unclear or confusing; to introduce error into," consider that one way of garbling someone’s story is to take bits and pieces out of context.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 23, 2025 is:

de rigueur • \duh-ree-GUR\  • adjective

De rigueur is a formal adjective that describes things that are necessary if you want to be fashionable, popular, socially acceptable, etc.—in other words, things required by fashion, etiquette, or custom.

// Dark sunglasses are de rigueur these days among fashionistas.

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Examples:

“Summer swimwear has come a long way since itty-bitty string bikinis were de rigueur for the beach and by the pool.” — Amanda Randone, Refinery29.com, 31 May 2024

Did you know?

It takes a lot of work to be cool. One needs to wear the right clothes, understand the right pop culture references, and use the right lingo before it ceases to be, ahem, on fleek. Rigor is required, is what we’re saying—a strict precision in adhering to the dictates of fashion. Such rigor is at the crux of the adjective de rigueur, a direct borrowing from French where it means “out of strictness” or “according to strict etiquette.” Rigor is also what distinguishes de rigueur from a similar French borrowing, du jour. While the latter describes things that are popular, fashionable, or prominent at a particular time, as in “topic/style/buzzword du jour,” de rigueur describes that which is considered mandatory by fashion, etiquette, or custom for acceptability within a given social sphere or context. A bucket hat, for example, may be the chapeau du jour if it is currently popular or prevalent, but it would only be de rigueur if, among a certain crowd, you would be given the side-eye for not wearing one.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 22, 2025 is:

neologism • \nee-AH-luh-jiz-um\  • noun

Neologism can refer either to a new word or expression or to a new meaning of an existing word.

// I love seeing all the slangy neologisms that pop up on social media every year.

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Examples:

"… [U]ndertakers refashioned themselves … as funeral directors over the span of a few decades in the early twentieth century. … [T]he new generation of morticians (another neologism meant to conjure expertise) bought up shambling Victorian mansions in swish residential districts and invented a new form of comfort." — Dan Piepenbring, Harper's, 2 Feb. 2024

Did you know?

The English language is constantly picking up neologisms. In recent decades, for example, social media has added a number of new terms to the language. Finsta, rizz, influencer, meme, and doomscroll are just a few examples of modern-day neologisms that have been integrated into American English. The word neologism was itself a brand-new coinage in the latter half of the 18th century, when English speakers borrowed the French term néologisme, meaning both "the habit of forming new words" and "a newly formed word." The French term, which comes from néologie, meaning "coining of new words," comprises familiar elements: we recognize our own neo-, with various meanings relating to what is new, as in neoclassical, and -logy, meaning "oral or written expression," as in trilogy.