Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 3, 2025 is: fidelity • \fuh-DELL-uh-tee\  • noun Fidelity is the quality or state of being faithful to a person, such as a partner or spouse, or a thing, such as one’s country. Fidelity can also refer to accuracy or exactness in details, or the degree to which an electronic device (such as a television) accurately reproduces its effect (such as sound or picture). // After almost three decades on the job, no one can doubt their fidelity to the company. // The movie’s director insisted on total fidelity to the book. See the entry > Examples: “The origins of the role [of ring bearer] actually have their roots in ancient Egypt, where a young boy would be enlisted to carry rings to a couple as a symbol of love, fidelity, and fertility.” — Shelby Wax, Vogue, 10 July 2025 Did you know? Fidelity came to English by way of Middle French in the 15th century, and can ultimately be trace

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 2, 2025 is: arbitrary • \AHR-buh-trair-ee\  • adjective Arbitrary describes something that is not planned or chosen for a particular reason, is not based on reason or evidence, or is done without concern for what is fair or right. // Because the committee wasn’t transparent about the selection process, the results of the process appeared to be wholly arbitrary. // An arbitrary number will be assigned to each participant. See the entry > Examples: “The authority of the crown, contemporaries believed, was instituted by God to rule the kingdom and its people. England’s sovereign was required to be both a warrior and a judge, to protect the realm from external attack and internal anarchy. To depose the king, therefore, was to risk everything—worldly security and immortal soul—by challenging the order of God’s creation. Such devastatingly radical action could never be justified unless kingship bec

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 1, 2025 is: ostracize • \AH-struh-syze\  • verb To ostracize someone is to exclude them from a group by the agreement of the group's members. // She was ostracized by her community after refusing to sign the petition. See the entry > Examples: "Telling stories with affection and noodging, [comedian Sarah] Silverman has always been encouraged by her family, who embraced rather than ostracized her for revealing family secrets on the way to reaping howls of laughter." — Thelma Adams, The Boston Globe, 19 May 2025 Did you know? In ancient Greece, citizens whose power or influence threatened the stability of the state could be exiled by a practice involving voters writing that person's name down on a potsherd—a fragment of earthenware or pottery. Those receiving enough votes would then be subject to temporary exile from the state. Ostracize comes from the Greek verb ostrakízein (i

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 31, 2025 is: hobgoblin • \HAHB-gahb-lin\  • noun A hobgoblin is a mischievous goblin that plays tricks in children’s stories. When used figuratively, hobgoblin refers to something that causes fear or worry. // This Halloween we were greeted at our door by werewolves, mummies, and a wide assortment of sweet-toothed hobgoblins. See the entry > Examples: “Vampires and zombies took a big bite out of the horror box office in Sinners and 28 Years Later, and with Del Toro’s Frankenstein hitting theaters next week, it would seem that a return to classic marquee monsters is one of the stories of this summer’s movie season. But there’s one old-school hobgoblin that’s lurking around the edges of this narrative, omnipresent, repeated across a number of notable new titles, but still somehow avoiding the limelight: the witch ...” — Payton McCarty-Simas, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Aug. 2025 Di

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 30, 2025 is: truculent • \TRUCK-yuh-lunt\  • adjective Truculent describes a person who is easily annoyed and eager to argue or fight. It can also describe the mood or attitude of such a person. // The approach of multiple deadlines had put me in a truculent mood, and I could tell my colleagues were avoiding me. See the entry > Examples: “It’s the holidays, and strings of gaudy rainbow lights twinkle from gables. In cozy living rooms, the elders doze in their chairs while middle-aged siblings bicker and booze it up around the dining table. Little kids squirm in makeshift beds trying to stay awake for Santa, while truculent teenagers sneak out into the suburban night to do secret teenager things.” — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 24 May 2024 Did you know? English speakers adopted truculent from Latin in the mid-16th century, trimming truculentus, a form of the Latin adjective trux, mea

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 29, 2025 is: deliquesce • \del-ih-KWESS\  • verb Deliquesce can mean "to dissolve or melt away" or, in reference to some fungal structures (such as mushroom gills), "to become soft or liquid with age or maturity." // The mushrooms deliquesced into an inky fluid. See the entry > Examples: "He would mould his figures in full in wax, then take a hot knife and—like a metaphysical surgeon—cut away triangles, rhomboids, flaps and scraps, until only a latticework was left. These new shapeshifting figures comprised more gaps than joins: bodies in the delicate, arduous process of shedding their skins, scattering into metal petals, being eroded and deliquesced. Things were freshly able to pass through these painstakingly hard-to-cast bronzes: light, air, sight." — Robert Macfarlane, Apollo, 1 May 2025 Did you know? Deliquesce comes from the prefix de- ("from, down, away") and a form of t

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 28, 2025 is: menagerie • \muh-NAJ-uh-ree\  • noun Menagerie refers to a collection of animals kept especially to be shown to the public, as well as a place where such animals are kept. It can also refer figuratively to any varied mixture of things. // The aviary featured a menagerie of exotic birds. // The space is eclectically furnished with a menagerie of flea market finds. See the entry > Examples: “The creatures are usually found hanging from phones or handbags ... or clutched as a kind of pet. They come in a menagerie of more than three hundred collectible forms. They can be matched to a personal style or mood: pink fur for when you’re feeling flirty; glowing red eyes for a bit of an edge ...” — Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 20 Aug. 2025 Did you know? Back in the days of Middle French, ménagerie meant “the management of a household or farm” or “a place where animals are

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 27, 2025 is: acerbic • \uh-SER-bik\  • adjective Something described as acerbic is sharply or bitingly critical, sarcastic, or ironic in temper, mood, or tone. // The comedian draws crowds that appreciate his acerbic wit. See the entry > Examples: "Whether she's giving a sarcastic eye-roll, tossing off an acerbic zinger, or seducing with a come-hither stare, [actress Jennifer] Simard intimately understands the art of underplaying." — Christopher Wallenberg, The Boston Globe, 1 June 2025 Did you know? English speakers created acerbic in the 19th century by combining the adjective acerb with the suffix -ic-. Acerb had already been around for a couple centuries, but for most of that time it had been used only to describe foods with a sour taste. (Acerb is still around today, but now it's simply a less common synonym of acerbic.) Acerbic and acerb ultimately come from the Latin adj

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 26, 2025 is: cognoscente • \kahn-yuh-SHEN-tee\  • noun Cognoscente refers to a person with expert knowledge in a subject. It is usually encountered in its plural form, cognoscenti, and preceded by the. // The audience at the club, though small, was full of writers, musicians, and other noteworthy members of the jazz cognoscenti. See the entry > Examples: "Even as [Ray] Bradbury was embraced by the New York cognoscenti—traveling to the city in the fall of '46, drawing the attention of Truman Capote, meeting Gore Vidal, dancing with Carson McCullers at a Manhattan party—Mars beckoned. Yet he would not dare tell his New York associates, for fear of being laughed out of the room." — Sam Weller, LitHub.com, 28 Apr. 2025 Did you know? Cognoscente and connoisseur—both terms for those in the know—are more than synonyms; they’re also linguistic cousins. Both terms descend from the Latin

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 25, 2025 is: wreak • \REEK\  • verb Wreak means “to cause something very harmful or damaging.” It is often used with on or upon. // The virus wreaked havoc on my laptop. See the entry > Examples: “Ours is a geography of cataclysm: Santa Anas wreak their psychic wrath; the odor of disaster seeps from the street like that sulfurous egg smell of the La Brea Tar Pits.” — John Lopez, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Sept. 2025 Did you know? In its early days, wreak was synonymous with avenge, a meaning exemplified when Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus proclaims “We will solicit heaven, and move the gods / To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.” This sense is now archaic, but the association hasn't been lost: although wreak is today most often paired with havoc, it is also still sometimes paired with words like vengeance and destruction. We humbly suggest you avoid wreaking any of tha