Apr 15, 2026 · Learn a new word every day! Follow Merriam-Webster for the most trusted Word of the Day, trending info, word games, and more.

Feb 25, 2026 · English speakers have only used the word onomatopoeia since the 1500s, but people have been creating words that imitate the sounds heard around them for much longer; chatter, for …

Nov 26, 2025 · “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 …

Dec 25, 2025 · English speakers borrowed noel from the French word noël, which is also used for both the Christmas holiday and a Christmas carol. It can be traced further back to the Latin word natalis, …

Dec 6, 2025 · The meanings of sensibility run the gamut from mere sensation to excessive sentimentality, but we’re here to help you make sense of it all. In between is a capacity for delicate …

Nov 23, 2025 · The word desolate hasn’t strayed far from its Latin roots: its earliest meaning of “deserted” mirrors that of its Latin source dēsōlātus, which comes from the verb dēsōlāre, meaning …

Oct 14, 2025 · There’s quite literally no place like utopia. In 1516, English humanist Sir Thomas More published a book titled Utopia, which compared social and economic conditions in Europe with those …

Sep 11, 2024 · Ahoy, mateys! Though it is now more often used by landlubbers, chockablock has a nautical history. On board a sailing vessel, chock can refer to a wedge or block that is pressed up …

Jan 21, 2024 · We’re not just blowing hot air when we tell you that conflate can actually be traced back to the same roots as the English verb blow. Conflate comes from conflatus, a form of the Latin verb …

Apropos wears its ancestry like a badge—or perhaps more fittingly a beret. From the French phrase à propos, meaning 'to the purpose,' the word's emphasis lands on its last syllable, which ends in a