Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 1, 2025 is: pseudonym • \SOO-duh-nim\  • noun A pseudonym is a name that someone (such as a writer) uses instead of their real name. // bell hooks is the pseudonym of the American writer Gloria Jean Watkins. See the entry > Examples: “Edgar Wright, the filmmaker and genre specialist who has given the world modern gems like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Baby Driver, estimates he was around 13 years old when he read ‘the Bachman Books,’ a collection of four novels that Stephen King published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman during the early years of his career.” — Don Kaye, Den of Geek, 9 Oct. 2025 Did you know? Pseudonym has its origins in the Greek adjective pseudōnymos, which means “bearing a false name.” French speakers adopted the Greek word as the noun pseudonyme, and English speakers later modified the French word into pseudonym. Many celebrated authors have used ps

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 30, 2025 is: iconoclast • \eye-KAH-nuh-klast\  • noun Iconoclast originally referred to someone who destroys religious images or who opposes their veneration. It is now used to refer broadly to anyone who criticizes or opposes beliefs and practices that are widely accepted. // The comedian had developed a reputation as a contrarian and an iconoclast for whom no topic was off-limits. See the entry > Examples: “Chicago will be the only U.S. city to see the 92-year-old iconoclast Yoko Ono’s new show. ... ‘Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind’ goes back to the start of the artist’s career in the mid-’50s, and the role she played in the creative worlds of New York, Tokyo and London.” — Carrie Shepherd, Axios, 1 Apr. 2025 Did you know? Iconoclast comes from the Middle Greek word eikonoklástēs, which translates literally as “image destroyer.” While the destruction wrought by today’s iconoclas

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 29, 2025 is: exculpatory • \ek-SKUL-puh-tor-ee\  • adjective Something described as exculpatory serves to prove that someone is not guilty of doing something wrong. // Their lawyer presented insurmountable exculpatory evidence at the trial. See the entry > Examples: “That agreement also requires prosecutors to implement new policies to prevent the misuse of informants, maintain records and audits, and to disclose exculpatory evidence to criminal defendants involving snitches.” — Salvador Hernandez, The Los Angeles Times, 18 Jan. 2025 Did you know? Exculpatory is the adjectival form of the verb exculpate, meaning “to clear from guilt.” The pair of words cannot be accused of being secretive—their joint etymology reveals all: they are tied to the Medieval Latin verb exculpare, a word that combines the prefix ex-, meaning “out of” or “away from,” with the Latin noun culpa, mean

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 28, 2025 is: sustain • \suh-STAYN\  • verb To sustain someone or something is to provide what is needed for that person or thing to exist or continue. Sustain also means "to hold up the weight of," "to suffer or endure," or "to confirm or prove." In legal contexts, to sustain something is to decide or state that it is proper, legal, or fair. // Hope sustained us during that difficult time. // The shed roof collapsed, unable to sustain the weight of all the snow. // The athlete sustained serious injuries during last week's game. See the entry > Examples: "Pushing fallen leaves into garden beds to insulate plants and nourish the soil will also shelter hibernating insects that, in turn, will sustain ground-feeding birds. It's much better for the ecosystem—and easier for the gardener—than bagging them up and sending them to a landfill." — Jessica Damiano, The Chicago Daily Herald, 12 Oct. 2025

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 27, 2025 is: cornucopia • \kor-nuh-KOH-pee-uh\  • noun A cornucopia, also known as a horn of plenty, is a curved, hollow goat’s horn or similarly shaped receptacle (such as a horn-shaped basket) that is overflowing, especially with fruit and vegetables. The image of a cornucopia is commonly used as decoration and as a symbol of abundance, but the word cornucopia is today more often encountered in its metaphorical use referring to an overflowing abundance, or to a seemingly inexhaustible amount of something. // The zoo’s new aviary is a veritable cornucopia of color and sound, with scores of different bird species swooping and squawking through the canopy. See the entry > Examples: “It was rather dark in there. ... However, the counters and their cornucopia of offerings were brightly lit. Want chocolate bars? Nasal sprays? Gummy bears? Bath bombs? Tinctures? Vapes? Mints? Jellies? Peanut butt

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 26, 2025 is: unabashed • \un-uh-BASHT\  • adjective Someone who is unabashed is not embarrassed or ashamed about openly expressing strong feelings or opinions. // Unabashed by their booing and hissing, the artist continued with the musical performance. See the entry > Examples: “Take the melodramatic storyline of a telenovela and tell it through the unabashed mediums of opera and drag, and you’ll have ‘Inebria Me,’ the subversive experimental opera by San Cha ending its West Coast tour at REDCAT this month. Latin dance fuses with queer storytelling as the sounds of ... punk, classical and electronic make up the performance, which pulls from creator San Cha’s 2019 album ‘La Luz de la Esperanza.’” — Katerina Portela, The Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2025 Did you know? To abash someone is to shake up their composure or self-possession, as illustrated by Charlotte Brontë in her 1849

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 25, 2025 is: perdition • \per-DISH-un\  • noun Perdition refers to hell, or to the state of being in hell forever as punishment after death—in other words, damnation. It is usually used figuratively. // Dante’s Inferno details the main character’s journey through perdition. // It’s this kind of selfishness that leads down the road to perdition. See the entry > Examples: “AC/DC has been criticized for sticking to its straightforward musical formula for more than 50 staggering years, but there’s little denying the appeal of the group’s adrenalized and reliable approach. As Angus Young stated in the liner notes for a reissue of ‘The Razor’s Edge,’ ‘AC/DC equals power. That’s the basic idea.’ That energetic jolt is sometimes the perfect means to raise spirits and spread actual joy, even coming from a band offering the cartoonish imagery of plastic horns and travel down the road to perdition.” —

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 24, 2025 is: amalgamate • \uh-MAL-guh-mayt\  • verb Amalgamate is a formal verb meaning "to unite (two or more things) into one thing." // The school district has proposed amalgamating the two high schools. See the entry > Examples: "Ten years ago, there were 339 credit unions in Ireland, but that is down to 187, according to Central Bank figures. Part of the rationale for credit unions to amalgamate to create larger units is so they can expand their mortgage and business lending." — Charlie Weston, The Irish Independent, 28 Aug. 2025 Did you know? Today, one can amalgamate—that is, combine into one—any two (or more) things, such as hip-hop and country music, for example. The origins of amalgamate, however, have more to do with heavy metal. Amalgamate comes from the Medieval Latin verb amalgamāre, meaning "to combine (a metal) with mercury." It’s been part of English since th

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 23, 2025 is: desolate • \DESS-uh-lut\  • adjective Desolate describes places that lack people, plants, animals, etc., that make people feel welcome in a place; desolate places are, in other words, deserted or barren. Desolate can also mean “joyless” or “gloomy.” // We drove for hours along a desolate stretch of road until finally a lone gas station appeared in the middle of nowhere. See the entry > Examples: “... the great novelists were my guide, and none more so than my grandfather. I learnt from him complexity of motivation, a willingness to take risks with storytelling, and the vital importance of landscape. Like Thomas Hardy, my grandfather was able to make his readers see what he wrote, whether it be the beauty of Rivendell or the desolate landscapes of Mordor.” — Simon Tolkien, LitHub.com, 29 May 2025 Did you know? The word desolate hasn’t strayed far from its Latin roo

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 22, 2025 is: metonymy • \muh-TAH-nuh-mee\  • noun Metonymy refers to a figure of speech in which a word that is associated with something is used to refer to the thing itself, as when crown is used to mean “king” or “queen.” // Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood are common examples of metonymy. See the entry > Examples: “The stick used to command the crowd is called a ‘brigadier.’ A brigadier is usually used to describe one who commands a military brigade, yes, but does not a stage manager lead his theater brigade? That’s the idea, according to organizers. It was a term used so often to refer to a stick-wielding stage manager that, through the magic of metonymy, the stick itself is now referred to as a brigadier.” — Emma Bowman, NPR, 6 Aug. 2024 Did you know? When Mark Antony asks the people of Rome to lend him their ears in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar he is askin