Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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meritorious
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 18, 2025 is: meritorious • \mair-uh-TOR-ee-us\ • adjective Meritorious is a formal adjective used to describe something that is deserving of honor, praise, or esteem. // She was honored for her meritorious service to the city. See the entry > Examples: "The Air Medal is awarded to anyone who distinguishes themselves through meritorious achievement while flying." — Rick Mauch, The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, 6 Mar. 2025 Did you know? People who demonstrate meritorious behavior certainly earn our respect, and you can use that fact to remember that meritorious has its roots in the Latin verb merēre, which means "to earn." (Merēre is also the source of the English noun and verb merit.) Nowadays, the rewards earned for meritorious acts are likely to be of an immaterial nature—gratitude, admiration, praise, etc.—but that wasn't always so. The history of meritorious recalls a reward more concrete in nature: cold, hard cash. In Latin, meritorious literally means "bringing in money."
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fugitive
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 17, 2025 is: fugitive • \FYOO-juh-tiv\ • noun Fugitive refers to a person who runs away to avoid being captured or arrested. // The FBI regularly updates and circulates its list of most wanted fugitives, and asks communities where they might be seen to be careful and on the lookout. See the entry > Examples: “The automated plate readers, as they are known, enable authorities to track when vehicles of interest pass through certain intersections. The devices can also be mounted on police cars, allowing officers to sweep up troves of license plate data as they drive around. Police say the gadgets help investigate stolen cars, locate fugitives, and solve crimes by checking who came and went from a neighborhood on any given day.” — Libor Jany, The Los Angeles Times, 10 Apr. 2025 Did you know? Fugitive entered English as both a noun and an adjective in the 14th century, coming ultimately from the Latin verb fugere, meaning “to flee.” As a noun, it originally referred, as it still does today, to someone who flees a country or location to escape persecution or danger, as from war, making it synonymous with another fugere descendent, refugee. The noun soon expanded beyond those fleeing peril to individuals (such as suspects, witnesses, or defendants) trying to elude law enforcement especially by fleeing the pertinent jurisdiction. The adjective fugitive describes those literally running away or intending flight, but also has multiple figurative uses, being applied to that which is elusive, of short duration, or of transient interest, among other things.
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abject
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 16, 2025 is: abject • \AB-jekt\ • adjective Abject usually describes things that are extremely bad or severe. It can also describe something that feels or shows shame, or someone lacking courage or strength. // Happily, their attempts to derail the project ended in abject failure. // The defendants were contrite, offering abject apologies for their roles in the scandal that cost so many their life savings. // The author chose to cast all but the hero of the book as abject cowards. See the entry > Examples: “This moment ... points toward the book’s core: a question of how to distinguish tenderness from frugality. Is ‘Homework’ about a child who took a remarkably frictionless path, aided by a nation that had invested in civic institutions, from monetary hardship to the ivory tower? Merely technically. Is it a story of how members of a family, protected by a social safety net from abject desperation, developed different ideas about how to relate to material circumstance? We’re getting there.” — Daniel Felsenthal, The Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2025 Did you know? We’re sorry to say you must cast your eyes down to fully understand abject: in Middle English the word described those lowly ones who are rejected and cast out. By the 15th century, it was applied as it still is today to anything that has sunk to, or exists in, a low state or condition; in modern use it often comes before the words poverty, misery, and failure. Applied to words like surrender and apology, it connotes hopelessness and humility. The word’s Latin source is the verb abicere, meaning “to throw away, throw down, overcome, or abandon.” Like reject, its ultimate root is the Latin verb jacere, meaning “to throw.” Subject is also from jacere, and we’ll leave you with that word as a way to change the subject.
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tantalize
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 15, 2025 is: tantalize • \TAN-tuh-lyze\ • verb To tantalize someone is to cause them to feel interest or excitement about something that is very attractive, appealing, etc. // She was tantalized by the prospect of a big promotion. See the entry > Examples: "Craving a culinary adventure? Look no further than Manila Street Treats, nestled within the vibrant Tapatio Produce International Market and Shops building in Elkton. This hidden gem offers a diverse menu of Filipino and international flavors that will tantalize your taste buds." — Chester County Press (Oxford, Pennsylvania), 1 Apr. 2025 Did you know? Pity poor King Tantalus of Lydia. The mythic monarch offended the ancient Greek gods, and was sentenced, according to Homer's Odyssey, to suffer in Hades the following punishment: to stand neck-deep in water, beneath overhanging boughs of a tree heavily laden with ripe, juicy fruit. But though he was always hungry and thirsty, Tantalus could neither drink the water nor eat the fruit: anytime he moved to get them, they would retreat from his reach. Our word tantalize is taken from the name of the eternally tormented king.
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nuance
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 14, 2025 is: nuance • \NOO-ahnss\ • noun A nuance is a very small difference in something, such as color, tone, meaning, etc. // Amy’s musical ear makes it easy for her to detect the subtle nuances in sampled music. See the entry > Examples: “Whether it’s historians, journalists, anthropologists or poets, those outside our community have attempted to narrate our experiences. But no matter how well intentioned, they cannot fully capture the depth and truth of our story. Why? Because only we can speak with the authority of lived memory, cultural nuance and ancestral knowing.” — Ka Vang, The Minnesota Star Tribune, 1 June 2025 Did you know? The history of nuance starts in Latin with the noun nūbēs, meaning “cloud.” Nūbēs floated into Middle French as nu, also meaning “cloud,” which eventually gave rise to nuer, meaning “to make shades of color.” (The association of a word for “cloud” with gradation of color apparently comes from the perception that an object’s color is weakened when mist passes over it.) Nuer in turn produced nuance, which in Middle French meant “shade of color.” English borrowed nuance from French, with the meaning “a subtle distinction or variation,” in the late 18th century. That meaning persists today, but the word has also picked up a few nuances of its own. For example, nuance is sometimes used in a specific musical sense, designating a subtle, expressive variation in a musical performance (such as in tempo, dynamic intensity, or timbre) that is not indicated in the score.
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