Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day

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

edify • \ED-uh-fye\  • verb

To edify someone is to teach them in a way that improves their mind or character.

// The commencement speaker hoped that her words would edify the graduates, and give them hope and encouragement.

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Examples:

"You might be tempted to think that Emerson advocates abandoning all admiration of others. He does not; he simply argues for hardheaded discrimination between what is good and true, and everything else. 'If you are noble, I will love you,' he writes, but 'if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions.' In other words, admire noble, good people, and give your attention only to what edifies and uplifts you." — Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic, 20 June 2024

Did you know?

When you edify someone, you’re helping them build character. This figurative "building" is key to understanding the history of edify. This word is an evolution of the Latin verb aedificare, originally meaning "to erect a house" and later (in Late Latin) "to instruct or improve spiritually." (The word edifice, which usually refers to a building and especially to a large or massive structure, comes from the same root.) Aedificare, in turn, is based on aedes, the Latin word for "temple." Edify shares the spiritual meaning of its Late Latin root, but it is also used in general contexts to refer to the act of instructing in a way that improves the mind or character overall.

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

circuitous • \ser-KYOO-uh-tus\  • adjective

If something—such as a path, route, or journey—is described as circuitous, it is not straight, short, and direct, but rather takes a circular or winding course. Circuitous can also describe speech or writing that is not said or done simply or clearly.

// He took a circuitous route to town, stopping at several of his favorite shops even though it added minutes and miles to his trip.

// While either method will yield the correct answer, one is far less circuitous and therefore considered superior.

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Examples:

“… like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, Ms. Lakey took a circuitous path to open a psychedelic community center. It involved a stint in the Amazon rainforest, a pen-pal in a maximum security federal prison and an auspicious meeting at a sushi restaurant in New Mexico.” — Rachel Nuwer, The New York Times, 8 Oct. 2023

Did you know?

In J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the titular hero Bilbo Baggins takes a circuitous route to the Lonely Mountain, which he helps to reclaim from a monstrous dragon. Although he successfully arrives there—and returns home again—we do not use the adjective circuitous to suggest that his path traces a perfect circle. We’ll get straight to it: although both circuitous and its relative circuit share roots in circus, the Latin word for “circle” (and ancestor of the English words circle and circus), neither need conjure something shaped like, say, a ring. Just as the noun circuit can refer to an indirect route, circuitous describes routes which can appear circular when mapped, but can also be jagged, squiggly, etc. The point is that a journey such as Bilbo’s is not straight, short, or direct, but rather rambling. When used figuratively, circuitous describes something that is not said or done simply and clearly; an example might be a rambling speech about manners in dangerous situations when a direct “Never laugh at live dragons” would suffice.

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

nomenclature • \NOH-mun-klay-cher\  • noun

Nomenclature is a formal word that refers to a system of names that is used in specialized fields and especially in science. Nomenclature is also used more broadly as a synonym of name and designation.

// It took Faith, a trained herpetologist, a while to become familiar with the nomenclature used at the entomology conference.

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Examples:

“The junior leagues wanted to instill the same type of nomenclature and methods used at the high school varsity level and teach the same type of philosophies.” — Rodger Roeser, Cleveland.com, 25 Nov. 2024

Did you know?

Nomenclature has everything to do with names: it can refer to the act of naming, a name itself, and even a system of names—you name it! The term comes to English from the Latin word nōmenclātūra, which means “assigning of names to things.” One may marvel, for instance, at the nomenclature—that is, names—of towns in the United States, from Ninety-Six (South Carolina) to Frankenstein (Missouri). Or one may be required to learn the nomenclature—the system of naming—of a particular branch of science. If nomenclature reminds you of a term you heard in biology class, you know what we mean. Binomial nomenclature refers to a system of nomenclature in which each species of animal or plant receives a name of two terms, of which the first identifies the genus to which it belongs and the second the species itself. For example, the scientific name for humans according to this nomenclature is Homo sapiens.

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

divers • \DYE-verz\  • adjective

Divers is an adjective meaning "numbering more than one."

// The tri-county fair offers divers amusements for the whole family.

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Examples:

"'These prizes reflect the diversity of this year's edition,' NIFFF [Neuchatel Int’l Fantastic Film Festival] artistic director Pierre-Yves Walder tells Variety. 'Our festival showcases the fantastic in all its forms, promoting divers styles, points of view, themes, and aesthetics—and I think these winners really show as much.'" — Ben Croll, Variety, 9 July 2022

Did you know?

Divers is not a misspelling of diverse—it is a word in its own right. Both adjectives come from Latin diversus, meaning "turning in opposite directions," and both historically could be pronounced as either DYE-verz (like the plural of the noun diver) or dye-VERSS. Divers (now pronounced more frequently as DYE-verz) is typically used before a plural noun to indicate an unspecified quantity ("a certain secret drawer in the wardrobe, where were stored divers parchments" — Jane Eyre); it's a rather formal word and not commonly encountered. Diverse (usually dye-VERSS) is frequently called upon to emphasize variety. It means either "dissimilar" or "unlike" (as in "a variety of activities to appeal to the children's diverse interests") or "made up of people or things that are different from each other" (as in "a diverse student body").

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

wanderlust • \WAHN-der-lust\  • noun

Wanderlust refers to a strong desire to travel.

// During their final semester at college, the two friends were both filled with an insatiable wanderlust and began planning a journey to Patagonia together.

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Examples:

"In a few weeks, Ortega explained in a quiet moment, the Red Desert herd would begin its annual pilgrimage toward summer range. ... Some were homebodies, wandering only a few dozen miles. Others, as Hall Sawyer had shown, would trek 150 miles. And one legendary doe, Deer 255, ditched her herdmates and pressed on—up to the Gros Ventre Range, along the shores of Jackson Lake, and across the Snake River, all the way to Idaho. Was this mere wanderlust or part of a broader survival strategy?" — Ben Goldfarb, Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, 2023

Did you know?

"For my part," writes Robert Louis Stevenson in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move..." Sounds like a case of wanderlust if we ever heard one. Those with wanderlust don't necessarily need to go anywhere in particular; they just don't care to stay in one spot. The etymology of wanderlust is a very simple one that you can probably figure out yourself. Wanderlust is a lust for wandering. The word comes from German, in which wandern means "to wander, hike, or stray" and Lust means "pleasure" or "desire."

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

opine • \oh-PYNE\  • verb

To opine is to express an opinion about something.

// Many people opine that social media platforms should be better regulated.

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Examples:

“Entertainment will always be inherently social. This latest age has prompted society to take a page out of video game culture, which has long relied on building a digital community. We text those we care about after a cliffhanger season finale and jump on social media to opine on the latest movie or show, sharing views on the best scenes or even recording oneself watching an intense scene for posting on social media.” — Geir Skaaden, Variety, 28 Aug. 2024

Did you know?

We are not opining—that is, expressing our opinion—when we say that opine is not a back-formation of opinion, though the two words do share a common ancestry. A back-formation is a word formed by the subtraction of part of an existing word; for instance, the verb bartend is a back-formation of the noun bartender. Opine and opinion, however, both entered English independently, taking different routes from their mutual roots in the Latin verb opīnārī, meaning “to have in mind” or “to think.” Opinion arrived in the 14th century, while opine followed about a century later.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 21, 2025 is:

gourmand • \GOOR-mahnd\  • noun

A gourmand is a person who loves and appreciates good food and drink. Gourmand can also refer to someone who enjoys eating and drinking to excess.

// He was a gourmand who retired to New Orleans to live close to the cuisine he loved best.

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Examples:

"... the deck sports a dining area with a barbecue and pizza oven for gourmands." — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 27 Oct. 2023

Did you know?

When gourmand first appeared in English texts in the 15th century, it was no compliment: gourmand was a synonym of glutton that was reserved for a greedy eater who consumed well past the point of satiation. The word’s negative connotation mostly remained until English speakers borrowed the similar-sounding (and much more positive) gourmet from French in the 17th century to describe a connoisseur of food and drink. Since then, while the original, unflattering sense of gourmand has remained, it has picked up an additional, softer sense referring to someone who appreciates, and has a hearty appetite for, the pleasures of the table. More recently, gourmand has expanded beyond cuisine and into the world of perfumery: fragrances that evoke edible pleasures are called "gourmands."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 20, 2025 is:

inimitable • \in-IM-it-uh-bul\  • adjective

Inimitable describes someone or something that is impossible to copy or imitate.

// Courtnay delivered the speech in her own inimitable style.

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Examples:

“In a nation whose professed ideals include freedom, liberty and independence, every American is charged with an individual self-examination. ... Such a searching self-examination helps us discover our precepts, ethics, ideals, principles, and purpose—a sense of mission. Reverend King discovered his mission as a teenager at Morehouse College. Although the son, grandson and great grandson of ministers, Reverend King initially aspired to be a lawyer. Then he encountered the inimitable Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, President of Morehouse College. ... The rest is history.” — David C. Mills, The (Nashville) Tennessee Tribune, 13 Apr. 2023

Did you know?

Something that is inimitable is, literally, not able to be imitated. In actual usage the word describes things so uniquely extraordinary as to not be copied or equaled, which is why you often hear it used to praise outstanding talents or performances (or uniquely talented and incomparable individuals). (The less common antonym imitable describes things that are common or ordinary and could easily be replicated.) Inimitable comes, via Middle English, from the Latin adjective inimitabilis. Be careful not to confuse it with inimical or inimicable, two adjectives meaning “hostile” or “harmful”; those words come from a different Latin root.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 19, 2025 is:

virtuoso • \ver-choo-OH-soh\  • noun

Virtuoso is used broadly to refer to a person who does something very skillfully, and is often used specifically to refer to a very skillful musician.

// He’s a real virtuoso in the kitchen, whipping up gourmet dishes for his family not just on holidays but on regular weeknights.

// Although the violin was her first instrument, she eventually proved to be a virtuoso on the harp.

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Examples:

"The newly assembled band finished its engagement and, shortly after, proceeded to New York to record Rich versus Roach (1959), a concept album pitting [Max] Roach in a drum battle with famed bandleader and drum virtuoso Buddy Rich." — Colter Harper, Jazz in the Hill: Nightlife and Narratives of a Pittsburgh Neighborhood, 2024

Did you know?

English speakers borrowed the Italian noun virtuoso in the 1600s, but the Italian word had a former life as an adjective meaning both "virtuous" and "skilled." The first virtuosos (the English word can be pluralized as either virtuosos or, in the image of its Italian forbear, as virtuosi) were individuals of substantial knowledge and learning ("great wits," to quote one 17th-century clergyman). The word was then transferred to those skilled in the arts and specifically to skilled musicians. In time, English speakers broadened virtuoso to apply to a person adept in any pursuit.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 18, 2025 is:

minuscule • \MIN-uh-skyool\  • adjective

Something described as minuscule is very small. Minuscule can also mean "written in, or in the size or style of, lowercase letters," in which case it can be contrasted with majuscular.

// The number of bugs in the latest version of the video game is minuscule compared to the number that surfaced in the beta version.

// The ancient manuscripts on display are all in minuscule script.

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Examples:

"Resembling a stout field mouse, B. brevicauda is a tiny burrowing mammal with inconspicuous ears and minuscule eyes well hidden behind a long narrow snout." — Bill Schutt, Bite: An Incisive History of Teeth, from Hagfish to Humans, 2024

Did you know?

Minuscule comes from the Latin adjective minusculus ("somewhat smaller" or "fairly small"), which in turn pairs the base of minus ("smaller") with -culus, a diminutive suffix (that is, one indicating small size). The minuscule spelling is consistent with the word’s etymology, but that didn’t stop English speakers from adopting the variant spelling miniscule, likely because they associated it with the combining form mini- and such words as minimal and minimum. Usage commentators generally consider the miniscule spelling an error, but it is widely used in reputable and carefully edited publications, and is accepted as a legitimate variant in some dictionaries. (Our own dictionary identifies miniscule as a "disputed spelling variant.")