Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 8, 2026 is:





nurture • \NER-cher\ • verb

Nurture is most often used to mean “to help someone or something grow, develop, or succeed.” It can also mean “to take care of someone or something that is growing or developing by providing food, protection, a place to live, etc.,” or “to hold something, such as an idea or strong feeling, in your mind for a long time.”

// Art teachers nurture their students’ creativity.

// She nurtured a secret ambition to be a professional singer.

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Examples:

“Parks are good for people. They nurture community, even alongside busy roads and next to dense housing; especially there, in fact.” — Cheryl Fox, The Park Record (Park City, Utah), 3 July 2026





Did you know?

When nurture was first adopted from Anglo-French into English in the 14th century, it referred, as it does in the phrase “nurture vs. nature,” to training or upbringing, i.e., to the care and attention given to someone or something that is growing or developing. It wasn’t until a century later that the verb nurture settled into the language, first with meanings having to do with feeding and caring for young—meanings nourish had been, er, nurturing for a hundred years. The words come by their overlapping meanings etymologically: both come from the Latin verb nutrire, meaning “to suckle” or “to nourish.” The figurative use of nurture, meaning “to further the development of,” followed centuries later. Mary Wollstonecraft applied it in her 1792 book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, writing, “Public spirit must be nurtured by private virtue.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 7, 2026 is:





invidious • \in-VID-ee-us\ • adjective

Invidious is a formal word used to describe things that are unpleasant and likely to cause bad feelings in other people. Such bad feelings may include resentment, discontent, animosity, or envy.

// Psychologists caution against drawing invidious comparisons between other people’s lives as portrayed on social media and one’s own.

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Examples:

“The gap between romantic expectation and mundane reality, frankly, never ceases to amaze with this team. France, somehow, get better, on paper, with every tournament. Talent keeps coming through at a relentless, invidious rate.” — James Horncastle, The New York Times, 16 June 2026





Did you know?

If invidious reminds you of the word insidious (“gradually or subtly causing harm”), you’ve got a nose for negativity—at least the lexical kind. It’s not that using the word invidious will harm you gradually, but that both words, in addition to rhyming and coming from Latin, are all about bad vibes. The two are otherwise unrelated; insidious comes from Latin insidiae, “ambush,” while invidious is instead a relative of envy and comes from the verb invidēre, meaning “to look askance at” or “to envy.” The link between envy and invidious is largely invisible today, as invidious is typically applied to that which is unpleasant (such as “an invidious position”) or is likely to cause harm or resentment (“invidious comparisons,” “invidious discrimination”).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 6, 2026 is:





torpor • \TOR-per\ • noun

Torpor is a formal word for a state of inactivity and sluggishness. It can also be used, especially in the context of hibernating and estivating animals, to refer to a state of lowered physiological activity.

// The magazine offers lots of ideas for activities designed to shake off the torpor of a rainy day.

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Examples:

“Especially during migration in the spring and fall, bats can get tired. If they are caught in a cold snap, they can go into torpor, like a mini-hibernation, to help survive the cold period when there aren't insects available to eat for energy.” — Tara Hohoff, The Conversation, 28 May 2026





Did you know?

Cheer up, sleepy Jean (or sleepy Gene)—we know what torpor can mean, and we’re happy to share. Torpor can mean a few things, actually. Most commonly it refers to a state of mind and body characterized by inactivity and lack of energy, as on a torrid (no relation) summer day when one has little desire to do much more than lie around daydreaming. While people may be able to shake off torpor that sets in when the heat takes away the will to get things done, it’s a bit harder for animals, for whom the word has a more technical meaning. An animal in torpor is in a state of lowered body temperature and metabolic activity, usually because of extreme heat or cold. The torpor can last a few hours or it can be months before the creature wipes the sleep out of its eyes.  Torpid, the related adjective (both torpid and torpor come from the Latin verb torpēre, meaning “to be sluggish or numb”) also has both technical and nontechnical applications, as in “torpid animals” or “a torpid economy.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 5, 2026 is:





colloquial • \kuh-LOH-kwee-ul\ • adjective

Colloquial is used with words like term and word and expression to describe language that is used in familiar and informal conversation.

// The author can switch from formal academic language to a charmingly colloquial style, depending on the audience and subject of her writing.

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Examples:

"The American woodcock is a native North American bird species found in Wisconsin and much of the eastern United States and Canada. Known by a host of colloquial names, including timberdoodle, ... bogsucker and mudsnipe, the species is about the size of the American robin ..." — Paul A. Smith, The Green Bay (Wisconsin) Press-Gazette , 1 May 2026





Did you know?

The noun colloquy has since the 15th century referred to a conversation or dialogue, and when the adjective colloquial was formed in the mid-18th century it had a similar focus. (Both words trace back to the Latin verb colloquī, meaning "to converse.") Over time, however, colloquial developed a more specific meaning related to language that is most suited to informal conversation, and it ultimately garnered a secondary use for language that is so informal as to be inappropriate for a given situation. For instance, when writing an academic paper about Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, it would not serve to say that the crew of the Endurance was "in quite a pickle" when they became trapped in ice off the Caird coast. Although pickle does indeed mean "a difficult situation" in this context, its flavor—ahem—may be considered too colloquial, that is, "unacceptably informal," for academic use.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 4, 2026 is:





élan • \ay-LAHN\ • noun

Élan refers to energy and enthusiasm.

// The dancers performed with great style and élan; we were exhausted just watching them.

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Examples:

"Carrying the production with the élan of a cheerful college quarterback, [Luke] Brady is an immediately likable leading man ..." — Matt Wolf, The New York Times, 25 June 2025





Did you know?

Once upon a time, back in the early 18th century, English speakers did not have élan (the word, that is; we have always had the potential for vigorous spirit). We had, however, the verb elance, meaning "to throw," which was used for the launching of darts, javelins, and similar weaponry. Elance came from the Middle French (s')eslancer, meaning "to rush" (that is, "to hurl oneself forth"). Elance enjoyed only a short flight in English, falling into disuse by the mid-19th century, around which time English speakers picked up élan, another French word that traces back, via the Middle French noun eslan ("rush"), to (s')eslancer. We copied élan in form from the French, but we dispensed with the French sense of a literal "rush" or "dash," retaining the sense of enthusiastic animation that we sometimes also characterize as dash, spunk, or vim.