Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 6, 2024 is: moxie • \MAHK-see\  • noun Moxie can refer to courage and determination (aka nerve), energy and pep (aka verve), or know-how (as, say, reflected in one’s oeuvre). // They showed a lot of moxie in questioning their company’s policy. // She clearly doesn’t need coffee to start her day full of moxie. // The lead actor’s musical moxie inspired the addition of a serenade at the close of the play’s first act. See the entry > Examples: “When your journalistic beat consists of providing helpful tips on how to win games, people naturally assume that you are an expert at playing them. That’s not always true, but I like to think that I make up for it with moxie and a reasonably consistent positive attitude.” — Deb Amlen, The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2024 Did you know? If the idea of a carbonated bevvy flavored with gentian root makes you thirsty to wet your whistle, then you’ve

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 5, 2024 is: affluent • \AF-loo-unt\  • adjective Someone described as affluent has a large amount of money and owns many expensive things. Something, such as a place or institution, described as affluent is similarly rich or wealthy. // The affluent suburb sports some of the finest public schools in the county owing to its considerable tax base. See the entry > Examples: "Princeton packs many charms into its 18.4 square miles. Halfway between New York and Philadelphia, it has long attracted affluent professionals, many enduring commutes of more than an hour in return for roomy, historic houses, old-growth trees that burst into flower in spring and the cultural riches of Princeton University." — Julie Lasky, The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2021 Did you know? Visualize with us: coffers overflowing, a cash flow more than adequate, assets that are fluid, an elderly duck in a top hat divin

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 4, 2024 is: meliorism • \MEE-lee-uh-riz-um\  • noun Meliorism refers to the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment. // Her belief in meliorism has given her a positive outlook on life. See the entry > Examples: "'Encanto' has been praised for its cultural accuracy. And many Colombians and Colombian Americans loved the film—but it has also started a debate: What can and can't one movie capture about a country? … 'I found it charming,' the writer and editor Camilo Garzón said in an interview. 'I found it beautiful. At the same time, it fell short in terms of what representation for representation’s sake can be.' He explained, 'In the spirit of American meliorism, the criticism is to make things better, not necessarily because I didn’t like it.'" — Laura Zornosa, The New York Times, 11 Mar. 2022 Did you know? In 1877, British novelist George Eli

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 3, 2024 is: deride • \dih-RYDE\  • verb To deride someone or something is to subject them to usually harsh and bitter insults or criticism. // Although derided by classmates for his insistence that he would be a millionaire by the age of 25, he achieved his goal when his Internet startup went public. See the entry > Examples: “Founded in 2012, this Redwood City brewery stands out for its British-style cask ales.... It's a traditional way of making beer without adding carbon dioxide. Often derided as resulting in beers that are flat and warm, that's not actually the case.” — Jay R. Brooks, The Mercury News (San Jose, California), 12 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Laughter may or may not be the best medicine—your mileage may vary—but it’s essential to understanding the verb deride. To deride someone or something is not merely to criticize or insult them, but to lower them (or attempt to lo

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2024 is: incidence • \IN-suh-dunss\  • noun Incidence refers to the number of times something happens or develops—in other words, the rate at which something occurs. // The neighborhood boasts excellent schools and a low incidence of crime. See the entry > Examples: "Pickleball, which is played with a perforated plastic ball and wooden paddles on a badminton-sized court, is the fastest growing sport in the U.S., with the number of players rising from 4.8 million in 2021 to 8.9 million in 2023, according to USA Pickleball. … A study co-authored by [Dr. Eric] Bowman that has not yet been published finds that between 2017 and 2022, the incidence of pickleball-related injuries rose faster than the growth of the sport’s popularity." — Linda Carroll, NBC News, 12 Feb. 2024 Did you know? The words incident, incidence, and instance may seem similar (and, in fact, incident and incidence

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2024 is: svelte • \SVELT\  • adjective Someone described as svelte is considered slender or thin in an attractive or graceful way. Svelte can also be used to describe something sleek, such as a vehicle or an article of clothing. // The svelte dancer seemed to float across the stage. See the entry > Examples: “There’s more plastic than some would prefer, but it’s otherwise an attractive, functional cockpit with comfy seats and room enough for three adults in the rear, as long as all are relatively svelte.” — Josh Max, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2024 Did you know? In Death on the Rocks, a 2013 mystery novel by Deryn Lake, the hero John Rawlings is described as having “svelte eyebrows” (he raises them also in 1995’s Death at the Beggar’s Opera). Lake’s oeuvre notwithstanding, svelte is not an adjective commonly applied to eyebrows, though it’s perfectly appropriate to do so—one of the word

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2024 is: foist • \FOIST\  • verb Foist, which is almost always used with on or upon, is used when someone forces another person to accept something, usually something that is not good or is not wanted. Foist can also mean “to pass off as genuine or worthy.” // I don’t want to foist anything on you, but if you like this old quilt you’re welcome to have it. // Faulty parts have been foisted on unwitting car owners. See the entry > Examples: “Since the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act during the New Deal era, employers have had to pay most of their workers for 40 hours of work even when business was slow. That was just the cost of doing business, a risk capitalists bore in exchange for the upside potential of profit. Now, however, employers foist that risk onto their lowest-paid workers: Part-time employees, not shareholders, have to pay the price when sale volumes fluctuate.” — Adelle Wal

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