Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 26, 2026 is:





zany • \ZAY-nee\ • adjective

Zany describes people or things that are very strange and silly.

// The cartoon series centers around two zany characters, best friends who also happen to be space aliens, constantly amusing each other with outrageous antics.

See the entry >





Examples:

“The fourth and final episode centers on a birthday party for The Cat in the Hat. ... Seeing where the clues lead, the friends embark on a joyous adventure of songs, dances, silly challenges, and plenty of zany energy from their wacky striped friend.” — Sarah Scott, Parents, 22 Dec. 2025





Did you know?

The oddballs among us are likely familiar with zany as an adjective, meaning “eccentric.” But did you know the word originated as a noun—one that has withstood the test of time? Zanies have been theatrical buffoons since the heyday of the Italian commedia dell’arte, in which a “zanni” was a stock servant character, often an intelligent and proud valet with abundant common sense and a love of practical jokes. Zanni comes from a dialect nickname for Giovanni, the Italian form of John. The character quickly spread throughout European theater circles, inspiring such familiar characters as Pierrot and Harlequin, and by the late 1500s an anglicized version of the noun zany was introduced to English. The adjective appeared within decades, and eventually both adopted more general meanings to refer to or describe those of us who are quipsters and weirdos.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 25, 2026 is:





undulate • \UN-juh-layt\ • verb

Undulate is a formal word that means “to move or be shaped like waves.”

// On the approach to the tulip festival, visitors are greeted by a large field of the colorful flowers undulating in the wind.

See the entry >





Examples:

“When sufficiently heated, the fresh cheese contracts, sweating whey from the curds that provides liquid to cook the dough, which will plump up and undulate slightly as it expands.” — Karima Moyer-Nocchi, The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese: From Ancient Rome to Modern America, 2026





Did you know?

Undulate and inundate (“to cover something with a flood of water”) are word cousins that flow from unda, the Latin word for “wave.” No surprise there. But would you have guessed that abound, surround, and redound are also unda offspring? While their modern definitions have nothing to do with waves or water, at some point in their early histories, they all meant “to overflow,” and caught a wave from there.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 24, 2026 is:





cadence • \KAY-dunss\ • noun

Cadence is used to refer to various rhythmic or repeated motions, activities, or patterns of sound, or to the way a person's voice changes by gently rising and falling while they are speaking.

// Ivy relaxed at the beach, listening to the cadence of the surf.

// He speaks with a soft Southern cadence.

See the entry >





Examples:

“Urged by a fast-talking auctioneer and his familiar cadence, paddles shot up as bids climbed into the four- and five-figure range.” — Lily Moayeri, Rolling Stone, 29 Jan. 2026





Did you know?

A cadence is a rhythm, or a flow of words or music, in a sequence that is regular (or steady as it were). But lest we be mistaken, cadence also lends its meaning to the sounds of Mother Nature (such as birdsong) to be sure. Cadence comes from Middle English borrowed from Medieval Latin’s own cadentia, a lovely word that means “rhythm in verse.” (You may also recognize a cadence cousin, sweet cadenza, as a word that is familiar in the opera universe.) And from there our cadence traces just a little further backward to the Latin verb cadere “to sound rhythmically, to fall.” Praise the rising and the falling of the lilting in our language, whether singing songs or rhyming or opining on it all.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 23, 2026 is:





frenetic • \frih-NET-ik\ • adjective

Something described as frenetic is filled with excitement, activity, or confusion. The word is a synonym of frantic.

// The event was noisy and frenetic, which prompted us to leave early.

See the entry >





Examples:

“As Marty Mauser, a wannabe table tennis champion who dreams and deceives his way through his shamble of a life ... [Timothée Chalamet] injects his scenes with enough nervous energy to fuel a plane. Nowhere will you see a performance more frenetic or impressive.” — Ralph Jones, Vanity Fair, 9 Feb. 2026





Did you know?

In modern use, frenetic can describe a focused and intense effort to meet a deadline, or dancing among a hyped-up crowd, but the word’s Middle English predecessor, frenetik, had a narrower use: it was used to describe those exhibiting a severely disordered state of mind. If you trace frenetic back far enough, you’ll find that it comes from Greek phrenîtis, a term referring to an inflammation of the brain. As for frenzied and frantic, they’re not only synonyms of frenetic but relatives as well. Frantic comes from frenetik, and frenzied traces back to phrenîtis.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 22, 2026 is:





apotheosis • \uh-pah-thee-OH-sis\ • noun

Apotheosis refers to the perfect form or example of something, or to the highest or best part of something. It can also mean “elevation to divine status; deification.” It is usually singular, but the plural form is apotheoses.

// Some consider (however ironically) french fries to be the apotheosis of U.S. cuisine.

// Their music reached its creative apotheosis in the late 2010s, which is also when they won two Grammys.

See the entry >





Examples:

“At its simplest level, Canada appears in American literature as a wilderness escape from a more urbanized United States. ... The apotheosis of this view of Canada as a wilderness getaway might be Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Two Campers in Cloud Country,’ subtitled ‘Rock Lake, Canada’ and written about a camping trip she and her husband Ted Hughes took through Canada and the northeastern US in 1959.” — Brooke Clark, LitHub.com, 17 Apr. 2025





Did you know?

Among the ancient Greeks, it was sometimes thought fitting to grant someone “god” status. Hence the word apothéōsis, from the verb apotheóō or apotheoûn, meaning “to deify.” (All are rooted in the Greek word theós, meaning “god,” which we can also thank for such religion-related terms as theology and atheism.) There’s not a lot of literal apotheosizing to be had in modern English, but apotheosis is thriving in the 21st century. It can refer to the highest or best part of something, as in “the celebration reaches its apotheosis in an elaborate feast,” or to a perfect example or ultimate form, as in “a movie that is the apotheosis of the sci-fi genre.”