Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 14, 2026 is: imbroglio • \im-BROHL-yoh\  • noun Imbroglio is a formal word that refers to a complex dispute or argument. // Much of the sisters’ text thread involves the the latest imbroglios on their favorite reality show—who’s mad at who for what, and why. See the entry > Examples: “A tangled web of interpersonal feuds, played out in letters to the local newspaper, in social media posts and via legal filings in county court, has left the town with no clear path out of a situation that’s not covered by state law. The imbroglio has even reached the state Capitol ...” — Seth Klamann and Sam Tabachnik, The Denver Post, 8 Mar. 2026 Did you know? Ever noticed how an imbroglio embroils people in controversy? There’s a reason for that—an etymological one, anyway. Both the noun imbroglio (referring to, among other things, a scandal or bitter argument) and verb embroil (“to involve in conflicts or difficulties”) come from the Middle French word embrouiller, a combination of the prefix en- and brouiller, meaning “to jumble,” though they took slightly different paths. Embroil’s was direct, passing from Middle French through French and into English around the turn of the 16th century. Italians altered embrouiller to form imbrogliare, meaning “to entangle,” which spawned the noun imbroglio that English speakers embraced in the mid-18th century. English imbroglio first referred to a confused mass, and later expanded to cover confusing social situations such as complicated disputes, misunderstandings, and scandals.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 13, 2026 is: rectify • \REK-tuh-fye\  • verb Rectify is a formal word meaning “to correct (something that is wrong).” // We were given the wrong room key, but the hotel management quickly rectified the situation. See the entry > Examples: “NYC contributes roughly 54.5% of state revenue but receives only 40.5% back. Our budget proposals work to rectify this unsustainable imbalance and restore the funding our city deserves.” — Cordell Cleare, The New York Daily News, 18 Mar. 2026 Did you know? When you rectify something, you correct an error or make things right, which is fitting because rectify and correct both ultimately trace back to the Latin word regere, meaning “to lead straight,” “to direct,” or “to rule.” Rectify has had its “to set right” meaning since the early 16th century, but the word has over the years accrued various other meanings as well, including the specialized uses “to purify especially by repeated or fractional distillation” (as in “rectified alcohol”), “to make (an alternating current) unidirectional,” and several medical applications having to do with healing of one kind or another. Regere plays a part in the histories of several familiar English words, in addition to those mentioned above; the many relatives of rectify include direct, resurrection, and regimen.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 12, 2026 is: catercorner • \KAT-ee-kor-ner\  • adverb or adjective Catercorner is used to describe two things that are located across from each other on opposite corners. It is a less common variant of kitty-corner. // The store is catercorner from the park, making it the perfect location to grab snacks for our picnic. See the entry > Examples: “Positioned on balconies catercorner from each other, Tom Brady completed a pass across Bourbon Street to Rob Gronkowski, proving they’ve still got it. Gronk promptly spiked the football on the fan-filled street below.” — Rebecca Cohen and Greg Rosenstein, NBC News, 9 Feb. 2025 Did you know? Catercorner gets its first element from the Middle French noun quatre, meaning “four,” which English speakers modified to cater and applied to the four-dotted side of a die—a side important in several winning combinations in dice games. Perhaps because the four spots on a die can suggest an X, cater eventually came to be used dialectically as a verb meaning “to place, move, or cut across diagonally”; cater was later combined with corner to form catercorner to describe things positioned diagonally from each other. (In one early usage from an 1825 magazine article, the author marvels at an “ancient Roman fresco painting, in which a luxurious table is represented as groaning under (among other choice dishes …) four peacocks, with their tails set, cater-corner!”) Eventually the variants kitty-corner and catty-corner, which are now the more common forms, developed. Despite all appearances, these terms bear no etymological relation to our feline friends.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 11, 2026 is: paragon • \PAIR-uh-gahn\  • noun Paragon is a formal word that refers to a person or thing that is perfect or excellent in some way and should be considered a model or example to be copied. // In Arthurian legend, Sir Galahad is depicted as a paragon of virtue. See the entry > Examples: "With a bar staff locally renowned for its cocktails, curated French cuisine, an extensive champagne menu and immaculately stylish atmosphere ... Claude is the local paragon of elegance." — Elijah Decious, The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), 18 Feb. 2026 Did you know? Paragon comes from the Old Italian word paragone, which literally means "touchstone." A touchstone is a black stone that was formerly used to judge the purity of gold or silver. The metal was rubbed on the stone and the color of the streak it left indicated its quality. In modern English, both touchstone and paragon have come to signify a standard against which something should be judged. Ultimately, paragon comes from the Greek verb parakonan, meaning "to sharpen," from the prefix para- ("alongside of") and akonē, meaning "whetstone."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 10, 2026 is: halcyon • \HAL-see-un\  • adjective Halcyon is most often used to describe a happy and successful time in the past that is remembered as being better than today. It can also mean “calm, peaceful” or “prosperous, affluent.” // She does not regret retiring, but looks back fondly on the halcyon years of her career. See the entry > Examples: “The first half of Alice Winn’s bestselling In Memoriam is set at Preshute, an English boys’ boarding school in the early twentieth century. It is here, in the idyllic countryside, where the boys discuss poetry and get up to all sorts of high-jinks and japes, and where two students, Gaunt and Ellwood, fall in love. Then the boys are ejected into the horror and abyss of WWI trenches. When they are reunited, mentally and physically scarred, Preshute is but a dream and their adolescent love, a halcyon place that can only be returned to in memory.” — Madeleine Dunnigan, LitHub.com, 16 Jan. 2026 Did you know? Halcyon has drifted along contentedly in English for centuries, but it hatched from a tumultuous story. According to Greek mythology, Alkyone, the daughter of the god of the winds, became so distraught over her husband Ceyx’s death at sea that she threw herself into the ocean to join him. The gods were moved by the couple’s love, and took pity on them by turning them into halcyon birds, a bird identified with the kingfisher. (Kingfishers are known for plunging into water after prey.) According to the legend, the birds built their nests on the sea, which so charmed Alkyone’s father that he created a period of unusual calm that lasted until the birds’ eggs hatched. Our word halcyon reflects the story in multiple ways. When halcyon was first used in English in the 14th century it was as a noun referring to the mythical bird, and later to actual kingfishers as well. Adjective use developed in the 16th century and now most often evokes those calm waters: the word typically describes an idyllic time in the past.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 9, 2026 is: gallivant • \GAL-uh-vant\  • verb To gallivant is to go or travel to many different places for pleasure. Gallivant is a somewhat informal word that is often applied when the user of the word does not approve of such pleasurable traveling. // They’ve been gallivanting all over town instead of studying for their finals. See the entry > Examples: “These days, she can be found gallivanting around the Upper West Side, catching the latest Broadway shows and occasionally hopping onstage to belt show tunes with the waitstaff at her beloved Times Square restaurant, where she remains hands-on with the business.” — McKenzie Beard, The New York Post, 18 Feb. 2026 Did you know? Back in the 14th century, gallant, a noun borrowed from the French word galant, referred to a fashionable young man. By the middle of the next century, it was being used more specifically to refer to such a man who was attentive to, and had a fondness for, the company of women. In the late 17th century, this “ladies’ man” sense gave rise to the verb gallant to describe the process a suitor used to win a lady’s heart, and “gallanting” became synonymous with “courting.” It’s this verb gallant that is the likely source of gallivant, which originally meant “to act as a gallant” or “to go about usually ostentatiously or indiscreetly with members of the opposite sex.” Today, however, gallivant is more likely to describe pleasurable wandering than romancing.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 8, 2026 is: wistful • \WIST-ful\  • adjective To be wistful is to have sad thoughts and feelings about something that you want to have or do, and especially about something that made you happy in the past. Wistful can also describe something, such as a smile or sigh, that shows or communicates such feelings. // As the car pulled away, Lea cast one last wistful glance at the house where she'd spent so many happy years. See the entry > Examples: "Postcards have always been an object of fascination for me. I remember flipping through photo albums as a young girl and coming across those sent to my parents, from people I had never met. When I asked who these people were, I would hear wistful stories." — Minoli Wijetunga, The Guardian (London), 10 Jan. 2026 Did you know? We see you there, dear reader, gazing silently up at the moon, heart aching to know the history of wistful, as if it could be divined on the lunar surface. And we'd like to ease your melancholy by telling you that the knowledge you seek—nay, pine for—is closer at hand. The word wistful comes from wistly, a now-obsolete word meaning "intently," and the similar-sounding wishful. Wistly, in turn, likely comes from whist, an old term meaning "silent." What's more certain is that our modern wistful is a great word to describe someone full of pensive yearning, or something inspiring such yearning.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2026 is: dudgeon • \DUJ-un\  • noun Dudgeon is typically used in the phrase “in high dudgeon” to describe someone who is angry and offended by something they perceive to be unfair or wrong. // The customer stormed out of the store in high dudgeon after the manager refused to give them a refund for their purchase. See the entry > Examples: “She was in high dudgeon because her expensive lunch was punctuated by noise from a child ‘a real menace’ whose parents, she said, appeared oblivious to the noise while staff … played with and entertained the tot. If the parents could afford the bill for a place like that, they could afford a babysitter, she snipped.” — Rachel Moore, The Eastern Daily Press (Norwich, England), 6 Feb. 2026 Did you know? Dudgeon is today most often used in the phrase “in high dudgeon” to describe someone in a fit of pique, or more colloquially, in a snit: they are angry and offended because of something they perceive as unfair or wrong. The word has been a part of the English language since at least the late 1500s, but its origins are a mystery. Conjectures connecting dudgeon to a Welsh word, dygen, meaning “malice,” have no basis. Also, there does not appear to be any connection to an even older dudgeon—a term once used for a dagger or a kind of wood out of which dagger handles were made.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 6, 2026 is: flamboyant • \flam-BOY-ant\  • adjective Someone or something described as flamboyant has a very noticeable quality that attracts a lot of attention. Such a person or thing is often strikingly elaborate or colorful in their behavior or display. // Reality television attracts millions of viewers for its depictions of flamboyant, larger-than-life personalities living equally flamboyant lifestyles. See the entry > Examples: “[Helen] McCrory’s flamboyant and perfectly drawn portrayal of Polly was the show’s real treasure, a steel-willed matriarch unusually attuned to the mysticism of the Shelby family’s Romani roots who also served as a ruthlessly pragmatic consigliere. ... McCrory’s Polly was so electric that the show remained totally riveting any time she was onscreen.” — Jack Hamilton, Slate, 20 Mar. 2026 Did you know? Associate the word flamboyant with bananas flambé and the word’s fiery etymology will be seared in your mind. Flamboyant, which was borrowed into English from French in the 19th century, can be traced back to the Old French word flambe, meaning “flame.” In its earliest uses flamboyant referred to an ornate style of Gothic architecture popular in France and Spain, which featured waving curves suggestive of flames. Eventually, the word developed a more general second sense for anything eye-catching or showy. And of course, flambe is also the origin of the English adjective flambé, which describes food flamboyantly dressed or served with flaming liquor.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 5, 2026 is: augur • \AW-gur\  • verb To augur is to show or suggest, especially from omens, that something might happen in the future. Used most often in formal speech or writing, augur is often followed by an adverb, such as well. // The downturn augurs badly for the success of the business. See the entry > Examples: "Last March, almost exactly two decades after his ghost church appeared at the Whitney, [Banks] Violette put another destroyed structure on display: the canopy of an abandoned gas station split in half. ... This wreckage could only augur doom." — Rachel Wetzler, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026 Did you know? In ancient Rome, augurs were official diviners whose function it was to divine whether the gods approved of a proposed undertaking, such as a military move. They did so by various means, among them observing the behavior of birds and examining the entrails of sacrificed animals. We doubt the Romans predicted that their verb augurāre, meaning "to foretell by augury," would evolve into an English verb meaning "presage or foretell," but in retrospect, augur's path must have been in the stars.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 4, 2026 is: scrupulous • \SKROO-pyuh-lus\  • adjective Scrupulous describes someone who is very careful about doing something correctly, or something marked by such carefulness. Scrupulous can also describe someone who is careful about doing what is honest and morally right. // She was always scrupulous about her work. // Being an editor requires scrupulous attention to detail. // Less scrupulous companies find ways to evade the law. See the entry > Examples: “Scrupulous directors make sure that the sound of their movies is grossly efficient, so that the dramatic meaning of a scene is apparent even in the worst theatre or home system in the country …” — David Denby, The New Yorker, 9 Mar. 2026 Did you know? People described as scrupulous might feel discomfort if their work is not executed with a sharp attention to detail. Such discomfort might present itself as a nagging feeling, much as a sharp pebble in a shoe might nag a walker intent on getting somewhere. And we are getting somewhere. The origin of scrupulous is founded in just such a pebble. Scrupulous and its close relative scruple (“a feeling that prevents you from doing something that you think is wrong”) both come from the Latin noun scrupulus, “a small sharp stone,” the diminutive of scrupus, “a sharp stone.” Scrupus has a metaphorical meaning too: “a source of anxiety or uneasiness.” When the adjective scrupulous entered the English language in the 15th century, it described someone careful about preserving their moral integrity, but it now is also commonly used for someone who is careful in how they execute tasks.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 3, 2026 is: métier • \MET-yay\  • noun Métier, sometimes styled metier, is a formal word that refers to something that a person does very well. // After trying several careers, she found her true métier in computer science. See the entry > Examples: “Turning from his father’s trade of corset-making, [Thomas] Paine tried his hand at business, met and impressed Benjamin Franklin in London, sailed to America, and there found his true metier as a pamphleteer and radical.” — Matthew Redmond, The Conversation, 9 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Over the centuries, English has borrowed several French words related in some way to work or working, among them oeuvre (“a substantial body of work of a writer, an artist, or a composer”) and travail (“work of a laborious nature, toil”). Métier (pronounced /MET-yay/) is another. It is sometimes translated from its original French as “job” or “career” but in that language it more accurately refers to the trade or profession in which one works (it traces back to the Old French mistier, meaning “duty, craft, profession”). In English we tend toward a narrower meaning for métier, referring either to a job for which one is perfectly suited or a particular field in which one is extremely skilled. This makes it a synonym of another French borrowing, forte.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 2, 2026 is: exasperate • \ig-ZASS-puh-rayt\  • verb To exasperate someone is to cause them irritation or annoyance, or to make them angry. // We were all exasperated by the delays. See the entry > Examples: "My tendency to throw remote historical observations into a conversation exasperates my wife and often results in chuckles and eye rolls from friends." — Angus Scott, The Niagara Falls (Ontario) Review, 28 Mar. 2026 Did you know? Exasperate is frequently confused with exacerbate, and with good reason. Not only do these words resemble one another in spelling and pronunciation, they also at one time held exceedingly similar meanings. Exasperate is today most commonly used as a synonym of annoy, but for several hundred years it also had the meanings "to make more grievous" and "to make harsh or harsher." Exacerbate is now the more common choice when one seeks to indicate that something is becoming increasingly bitter, violent, or unpleasant. It comes in part from the Latin word acer, meaning "sharp," whereas exasperate is from asper, the Latin word for "rough." The latter is also the source of the English asperity, which can refer to the roughness of a surface or the roughness of someone's temper.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 1, 2026 is: Beltane • \BEL-tayn\  • noun Beltane refers to the Celtic May Day festival. // Beltane falls each year approximately halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. See the entry > Examples: “On May 1, we celebrate what began as the ancient Celtic holiday of Beltane. ... It started at sundown April 30, when, according to Celtic lore, the evil spirits that had wreaked havoc on humans since Halloween had a last fling before the dawning of May 1 cast them into their annual six-month exile. The night of April 30 is still celebrated, especially abroad, with bonfires and revelry.” — Deane Morrison, The Owatonna (Minnesota) People’s Press, 26 Mar. 2026 Did you know? To the ancient Celts, May Day marked the start of summer, and a critical time when the boundaries between the human and supernatural worlds were removed, requiring that people take special measures to protect themselves against enchantments. The Beltane fire festival originated in a summer ritual in which cattle were herded between two huge bonfires to protect them from evil and disease. The word Beltane has been used in English since the 15th century, but the earliest known instance of the word in print—as well as the description of that summer ritual—appears in an Irish glossary commonly attributed to Cormac, a king and bishop who lived in the south of Ireland near the end of the first millennium.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 30, 2026 is: interlocutor • \in-ter-LAH-kyuh-ter\  • noun Interlocutor is a formal word that means “one who takes part in dialogue or conversation.” // It is crucial in our age of email scams to verify the validity of one’s online interlocutors before sharing sensitive information. See the entry > Examples: “I remember sitting alone on the train platform, and then on the train, with no interlocutor but the poem. I read it once. I read it again. And in the blank spaces between the verses, I started to translate.” — Hannah Kauders, LitHub.com, 3 Dec. 2025 Did you know? It may not necessarily be grandiloquence to use the word interlocutor in casual speech, but if your interlocutors—that is, the people with whom you are speaking—are using it, your conversation is likely a formal one. Interlocutor is one of many English words that comes from the Latin verb loqui, “to speak,” including loquacious (“talkative”), eloquent (“capable of fluent or vivid speech”), and grandiloquence (“extravagant or pompous speech”). In interlocutor, loqui was joined to inter- forming a Latin word meaning “to speak between” or “to issue an interlocutory decree.” An interlocutory decree is a judicial decision that isn’t final, or that deals with a point other than the principal subject matter of the dispute.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 29, 2026 is: speculate • \SPEK-yuh-layt\  • verb In general contexts, speculate means "to form ideas or theories about something usually when there are many things not known about it." In contexts relating to business or finance, it means "to invest money in ways that could produce a large profit but that also involve a lot of risk." // Scientists speculate that the newly discovered exoplanet could host liquid water. // Their research explores the implications of so many people speculating on the stock market in the years leading up to the Great Depression. See the entry > Examples: "Bad Bunny wore an all-cream ensemble consisting of a collared shirt and tie, chinos and a sport-inspired jersey bearing the name "Ocasio"—his surname—and the number 64. The significance of the number was not confirmed, but fans were quick to speculate that it referenced his mother's birth year." — Lara Owen, The Independent (United Kingdom), 9 Feb. 2026 Did you know? It might be said that what separates our species from others is our tendency "to meditate on or ponder a subject." That's the original 16th century meaning of speculate. It's a use not too distant from today's most common sense, which also involves the mind and thinking: when someone speculates about something, they think and make guesses about it, often forming unsubstantiated ideas or theories. But the origins of speculate lie not in thinking but in looking—the word comes from Latin specere, meaning "to look," or "to look at." We don't have to look far to find other specere descendants, and we'll point them out here with some italics: a cursory inspection reveals spectacle, spectrum, specimen, and perspective. Less conspicuous are despise, prospect, and species.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 28, 2026 is: evanescent • \ev-uh-NESS-unt\  • adjective Evanescent is a formal and literary word that describes something that only lasts a very short time. // Our acting coach always reminded us that fame is evanescent, and that we should pursue a life in the theater purely for the love of the art. See the entry > Examples: "Franklin once sternly confiscated a customer's espresso and refunded his money because he took too long sipping it and thus allowed the evanescent flavors to dissipate." — Kirkus Reviews, 8 Jan. 2026 Did you know? Evanescent didn't appear in the English language out of thin air; it comes from a form of the Latin verb evanescere, which means "to fade away" or "to disappear." (Evanescere is also the ultimate source of vanish.) Given the similarity in spelling and meaning between the two words, you might expect evaporate to trace back to evanescere as well, but its source is another steamy Latin root, evaporare. While today evanescent is used to describe things that last only a short time, the word could formerly also describe the incalculably small. That use is now archaic, meaning it has almost blown away on the breeze.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 27, 2026 is: boondoggle • \BOON-dah-gul\  • noun A boondoggle is an expensive and wasteful project usually paid for with public money. Boondoggle is also a word for a braided cord worn by Boy Scouts as a neckerchief slide, hatband, or ornament. // Critics say the dam is a complete boondoggle—over budget, behind schedule, and unnecessary. See the entry > Examples: "A controversial proposal to construct a new bridge from Bridgeport to Long Island is either a bold, visionary step into the future or an unaffordable boondoggle that could cost more than $50 billion." — Christopher Keating, The Hartford (Connecticut) Courant, 8 Mar. 2026 Did you know? When boondoggle popped up in the early 1900s, lots of people tried to explain where the word came from. One theory traced it to an Ozarkian word for "gadget," while another related it to the Tagalog word that gave us boondocks. Another hypothesis suggested that boondoggle came from the name of leather toys Daniel Boone supposedly made for his dog. But the only theory that is supported by evidence is much simpler. In the 1920s, Robert Link, a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America, apparently coined the word to name the braided leather cords made and worn by scouts. The word came to prominence when such a boondoggle was presented to the Prince of Wales at the 1929 World Jamboree, and it's been with us ever since. Over time, it developed the additional sense describing a wasteful or impractical project.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 26, 2026 is: onerous • \AH-nuh-rus\  • adjective Onerous means "involving, imposing, or constituting a burden." It typically describes something that is difficult and unpleasant to do or deal with. // They were assigned the onerous task of post-show cleanup. // The government imposed onerous taxes on imports. See the entry > Examples: "Morton professed joy at relinquishing politics and announced his intention to retire to his country estate, where he would henceforth be occupied with nothing more onerous than straightening out the pathways in his beautiful gardens." — Gareth Russell, The Six Loves of James I, 2025 Did you know? The story behind onerous is at once straightforward and, dare we say, poetic. But perhaps that's putting the cart before the horse. Onerous rolled into the English language during the 14th century, via Middle French, from the Latin adjective onerosus, "burdensome." That word, in turn, was hitched to the noun onus, meaning "burden" (source too of our word onus, which usually refers to a burden or responsibility). Onus shares an ancient root with the Sanskrit word anas, meaning "cart." So although onerous stresses a sense of laboriousness and often figurative heaviness (especially because something is distasteful, e.g. "the onerous task of cleaning up the mess"), it has a deep connection with a literal weight borne by a person, horse, or other beast of burden.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2026 is: juxtapose • \JUK-stuh-pohz\  • verb To juxtapose things is to place them together in order to create an interesting effect or to show how they are the same or different. // The local museum’s new exhibit juxtaposes modern art with classical art. See the entry > Examples: “... on ‘Murder Most Foul’ [Bob] Dylan thwarts readymade nostalgia, an easy revisiting of the storybook sixties and his golden ‘spokesman’ moment. Instead, mixing and juxtaposing voices, lingos, and tones, he traces the decline of America over the trajectory of his own lifetime ...” — Robert Polito, After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan’s Memory Palace, 2026 Did you know? Although it doesn’t feature the word juxtapose, a classic segment from a 1969 episode of Sesame Street perfectly illustrates the essence of the verb. In it, the character Bob (as played by actor Bob McGrath) sings the catchy song “One of These Things (Is Not Like the Others)” in front of a display that juxtaposes—that is, places near one another for comparison—four items: an apple, an ice cream cone, a hamburger, and a mitten. The song asks its audience to consider their similarities and differences before deciding which is the most different (spoiler alert: it’s the mitten). The word juxtapose is likely a back-formation of the noun juxtaposition, which appropriately enough combines the Latin adjective juxta meaning “near” with the English word position. The use of juxtapose isn’t limited to tangible objects, however—images, ideas, concepts, and more are frequently juxtaposed.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 24, 2026 is: arboreal • \ahr-BOR-ee-ul\  • adjective Arboreal is a formal and literary word used to describe something that relates to trees. It is also used in technical contexts to mean "living in or often found in trees," as in "arboreal primates." // Despite weekly hikes on the same trail, she never ceases to be amazed by the arboreal beauty. See the entry > Examples: "In the saplings' early years, slow growth is the key to arboreal longevity, so the matriarch keeps her offspring in the shade." — Mike Dilger, The Guardian (London), 21 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Arboreal took root in English in the 17th century, at a time when language influencers were eager to see English take on words from Latin and Greek. Apparently unsatisfied with a now-obsolete adjective treen meaning (as recorded in our Unabridged dictionary) "of, relating to, or derived from trees," they plucked arboreal from the Latin arboreus, meaning "of a tree"; its ultimate root is arbor, meaning "tree." That root arborized—that is, branched freely (to use the term figuratively): English abounds with largely obscure words that trace back to arbor, meaning "tree." Generally synonymous with arboreal are arboraceous, arborary, arboreous, and arborous. Synonymous with arboreal specifically in the sense of "relating to or resembling a tree" are arborescent, arboresque, arborical, and arboriform. Arboricole is a synonym of arboreal in its "inhabiting trees" sense. (The influencers may have overdone it a bit.) Arboreal is far more common than any of these, but other arbor words also have a firm hold in the language: arborvitae refers to a shrub whose name translates as "tree of life"; arboretum refers to a place where trees are cultivated; and arboriculture is the cultivation of trees. And of course we can't forget Arbor Day, which since 1872 has named a day set aside for planting trees. You'd be forgiven for assuming that the English word arbor, in the sense meaning "a garden shelter of tree boughs or vines twined together," is rooted in the same source as arboreal, but in fact it comes from the Latin noun herba, meaning "herb" or "grass."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2026 is: fortitude • \FOR-tuh-tood\  • noun Fortitude is a formal word that refers to the strength of mind that enables someone to encounter danger or to bear pain or adversity with courage. Less formal words with similar meanings include grit, fiber, and pluck. // To reach the summit of the mountain requires not only great physical strength and training but the fortitude to persevere no matter the challenge. See the entry > Examples: “Managing is never a one-size-fits-all process. Personality, fortitude, and experience all matter, as does context.” — Gary Deer, The Daily Gazette (Xenia, Ohio), 28 Mar. 2026 Did you know? Fortitude comes from the Latin word fortis, meaning “strong,” and in English it has always been used primarily to describe strength of mind. For a time, the word was also used to mean “physical strength”; William Shakespeare used it that way in Henry VI, Part 1: “Coward of France! How much he wrongs his fame / Despairing of his own arm’s fortitude.” But despite use by the famous bard, that meaning languished and is now considered obsolete. Even the familiar phrase “intestinal fortitude” is just a humorous way to refer to someone’s courage or mental stamina, not the literal strength of their digestive system. (If you’re looking to describe a mighty gastrointestinal tract, we might suggest “iron stomach.”)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 22, 2026 is: tantamount • \TAN-tuh-mount\  • adjective Something may be described as tantamount to something else if it is equal in value, meaning, or effect. // The pop star’s fans see any criticism of her music as tantamount to a crime. See the entry > Examples: “... conducting requires more than merely gesturing with a baton—some pieces of music are tantamount to 80 minutes of hard cardio ...” — Mark Shanahan, The Boston Globe, 15 Mar. 2026 Did you know? Although tantamount (from the Anglo-French phrase tant amunter, meaning “to amount to as much”) was used three different ways in the early 17th century—as a noun, verb, and adjective—the adjective form has since proven paramount to English users: it’s still in use while the noun and verb are obsolete. This is not to say that the adjective hasn’t experienced change over the years. While it was once acceptable to use tantamount in a variety of different sentence structures, nowadays it is almost always followed by the word to. And to use it before a noun, as in “the two old friends exchanged tantamount greetings,” would now be considered, er, tantamount to riding a penny-farthing or boneshaker onto the expressway.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 21, 2026 is: orthography • \or-THAH-gruh-fee\  • noun Orthography refers to the way in which the words of a language are spelled, or to the art of writing words with the proper letters according to standard usage. // As the winner of several spelling bees, she impressed her teachers with her exceptional grasp of orthography. See the entry > Examples: “Ormin, a medieval monk, sought to bring order to English orthography by addinng morre letterrs to worrds. August Thibaudin, a London professor, tried 9dding n3mbers. Our ideas for simplifying spelling have ranged from the rashonal to the redikulus to the döunnryt ubsërrd, and with each whimsical solution we seem to get further away from cognitive stability.” — Gabe Henry, Enough is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell, 2025 Did you know? The concept of orthography (a term that comes from the Greek words orthos, meaning “right or true,” and graphein, meaning “to write”) was not something that really concerned English speakers until the introduction of the printing press in England during the 15th century. From that point on, English spelling became progressively more uniform. Our orthography has been relatively stable since the 1755 publication of Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language, with the notable exception of certain spelling reforms, such as the change of musick to music. Incidentally, many of these reforms were championed by Merriam-Webster’s own Noah Webster.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 20, 2026 is: indoctrinate • \in-DAHK-truh-nayt\  • verb To indoctrinate someone is to teach them to fully accept the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of a particular group while categorically rejecting other ideas, opinions, and beliefs. // The video series attempts to indoctrinate younger audiences with ahistorical and unscientific ideas. See the entry > Examples: "They worry about being 'cut off' from poetry, particularly by the jobs that they need to sustain their daily lives and that they fear may quietly indoctrinate them into a contrary value system." — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 2 Feb. 2026 Did you know? Indoctrinate means "brainwash" in most contexts today, but its meaning wasn't always so negative. When the verb first appeared in English in the 17th century, it simply meant "to teach"—a meaning linked closely to its source, the Latin verb docēre, which also means "to teach." (Other offspring of docēre include docile, doctor, document, and, of course, doctrine). By the 19th century, indoctrinate was being used in the sense of teaching someone to fully accept only the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of a particular group.