Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 18, 2025 is: talisman • \TAL-iss-mun\  • noun A talisman is an object (such as a ring or stone) that is believed to have magic powers and to cause good things to happen to the person who has it. // In ancient times, the gemstone was worn as a talisman to ward off evil. See the entry > Examples: “Brianna takes a picture of the shell on the beach, then holds it in her hand, staring as if at a talisman.” — Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker, 16 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Whether your personal lucky charm takes the form of a pink heart, yellow moon, orange star, green clover, or something else, the English language has got you covered, offering a bowlful of synonyms for magical objects. There’s mojo and amulet, periapt and phylactery, to name just a few. Talisman is another, and the mystery of its origins reflects the ubiquity of magical charms across cultures, languages, and time. The English language may have borrowed talisman from French, Spanish, or Italian; all three include similar-looking words that in turn come from the Arabic word for a charm, ṭilsam. Ṭilsam traces back to the ancient Greek verb telein, which means “to initiate into the mysteries [secret religious rites].”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 17, 2025 is: mercurial • \mer-KYUR-ee-ul\  • adjective Mercurial is usually used to describe someone whose mood changes quickly and unpredictably. It can also describe something that changes frequently, such as weather, or something that is lively and quick, such as someone’s wit. // The director had some concerns about working with the play’s lead, an actor with a reputation for having a mercurial temperament on set. See the entry > Examples: “‘The Guiding Light’ was the only radio soap to transition to TV. [Irna] Phillips introduced the ‘cliffhanger’ storytelling device and the mercurial female vixen character who still lives on the small screen today. Think reality TV or a Shonda Rhimes drama.” — Natalie Y. Moore, The Chicago Sun-Times, 3 Apr. 2025 Did you know? The Roman god Mercury was the messenger and herald of the gods and also the god of merchants and thieves (his counterpart in Greek mythology is Hermes). His swiftness inspired the Romans to give his name to what they correctly assessed as the fastest-moving planet in the solar system. Mercury’s speed also apparently made the name apt for English speakers wishing to describe those whose moods travel quickly between extremes, a meaning mercurial has had since the mid-17th century. The adjective mercurial comes from the Latin mercurialis, meaning “of or relating to Mercury.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 16, 2025 is: junket • \JUNK-ut\  • noun Junket refers to a trip that is paid for by someone else, such as a promotional trip made at another's expense, or an official's trip made at public expense. // The cast of the widely-acclaimed movie is making press junkets to major cities. See the entry > Examples: "... our regents are doing nothing to curtail the expectation that presidents and schools must pay dearly for board members to attend obscenely expensive junkets and entertain them while they're doing the taxpayers' business." — Janelle Stecklein, The Oklahoman Online (Oklahoma City, OK), 7 Apr. 2025 Did you know? Junket has traveled a long road, and its journey began with a basket made of rushes—that is, marsh plants commonly used in weaving and basketwork. The Latin word for "rush" is juncus, which English borrowed and adapted into various forms until settling on junket. That word was used in English to name not just the plant and the baskets made from the plant, but also a type of cream cheese made in rush baskets. Since at least the 15th century, the word has named a variety of comestibles, ranging from curds and cream to sweet confections. (Junket even today also names a dessert.) By the 16th century, junket had come to mean "banquet" or "feast" as well. Apparently, traveling must have been involved to reach some junkets because eventually the term broadened to apply to pleasure outings or trips, whether or not food was the focus. Today, the word usually refers either to a trip made by a government official and paid for by the public, or to a free trip by a member of the press to a place where something, such as a new movie, is being promoted.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 15, 2025 is: impervious • \im-PER-vee-us\  • adjective Impervious describes that which does not allow something (such as water or light) to enter or pass through. It is also used formally to mean “not bothered or affected by something.” Both senses of impervious are usually used with to. // The material is impervious to water. // The mayor seems impervious to criticism. See the entry > Examples: “All of this ups the already sky-high stakes for ‘Superman,’ which relaunches the DC Universe under the direction of Gunn and Peter Safran. The film is the studio’s best hope at fielding a billion-dollar blockbuster in 2025, but even the Man of Steel isn’t impervious to box office Kryptonite.” — Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 17 Jan. 2025 Did you know? Finding your way through some words’ etymologies can lead to surprising discoveries of origins that seemingly have little to do with their modern-day meanings. Impervious, which entered English in the early 1600s, is not one of those words—its history is entirely straightforward. The Latin ancestor of impervious is impervius, which adds the prefix im-, meaning “not,” to pervius, meaning “passable or penetrable.” Pervius in turn comes from per, meaning “through,” and via, meaning “way.” Impervious, it follows, describes things that don’t allow a way through something, whether literally (as in “asphalt, concrete, and other surfaces that are impervious to rain”) or figuratively (as in “impervious to criticism/pressure”). The opposite of impervious, pervious, entered English at around the same time, but it is much less common.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 14, 2025 is: scuttlebutt • \SKUTT-ul-butt\  • noun Scuttlebutt refers to rumor or gossip—in other words, talk or stories about someone or something that may not be true. // According to the scuttlebutt in the financial markets, the company will be downsizing soon. See the entry > Examples: “If highly social otters want the local scuttlebutt, so to speak, they can pick up information through the scents fellow otters leave behind at communal latrines that a group of otters will create and use.” — Lisa Meyers McClintick, The Minnesota Star Tribune, 2 Mar. 2025 Did you know? When office workers catch up on the latest scuttlebutt around the water cooler, they are continuing a long-standing tradition that probably also occurred on sailing ships of yore. Back in the early 1800s, scuttlebutt (an alteration of scuttled butt) referred to a cask containing a ship’s daily supply of fresh water (scuttle means “to cut a hole through the bottom,” and butt means “cask”); that name was later applied to a drinking fountain on a ship or at a naval installation. In time, the term for the water source was also applied to the gossip and rumors disseminated around it, and the latest chatter has been called “scuttlebutt” ever since.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 13, 2025 is: apotropaic • \ap-uh-troh-PAY-ik\  • adjective Something described as apotropaic is designed or intended to avert evil. // The etchings are believed to be associated with ancient apotropaic rituals. See the entry > Examples: “Scholars ... say witches were believed to be attracted to the scent of a human shoe and, having entered one, found themselves trapped. Footwear is one of a mindboggling array of items used in apotropaic magic, designed to turn away harm or evil influence.” — Pete Pheasant, The Derby (England) Telegraph, 13 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Apotropaic is a charming word, and not just because of its cadence. You see, this term is a literal descriptor for things believed to protect against evil. Apotropaic motifs can be found throughout history, from carvings of Greek Gorgons to charms worn to repel the evil eye. The word apotropaic comes from the Greek verb apotrépein, meaning “to turn away from, avert,” combining apo- (“away”) with trépein (“to turn”). The magic of apo- doesn’t end there: its influence is evident in many English words, including apology, apostrophe, apostle, and apocalypse.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 12, 2025 is: fester • \FESS-ter\  • verb Something that festers becomes worse as time passes. Fester can also mean, in the context of wounds, sores, etc., “to become painful and infected.” // We should deal with these problems now instead of allowing them to fester. See the entry > Examples: “Minor plumbing leaks left to fester have snowballed into water seeping down walls and out of light fixtures ...” — Devyani Chhetri, The Dallas Morning News, 11 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Both noun and verb forms of the English word fester come from the Latin noun fistula, meaning “pipe” or, less pleasantly, “fistulous ulcer.” Accordingly, the noun fester refers to a sore that forms or discharges pus, while the oldest sense of the verb fester means “to generate pus.” A boil, for example, is a festering infection of a hair follicle. Over time, the verb—as many words do—picked up a figurative sense, and fester began to be used not only for the worsening of a wound but for a worsening state, situation, etc.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 11, 2025 is: darling • \DAHR-ling\  • noun Darling can refer to a dearly loved person or to someone who is liked very much by a person or group. It can also mean “a kind and helpful person” as in, “Be a darling and carry this inside for me, would you?” // Our baby grandchild is just the sweetest little darling. // The actor has become a darling of the entertainment industry in both film and music. See the entry > Examples: “Rocking a BAPE hoodie and a slight nervousness, Jorjiana performed a freestyle and her most popular song, ‘ILBB2.’ And then boom: There’s no such thing as an overnight success, but it did seem as if Jorjiana was a social media darling by the next day.” — Damien Scott, Billboard, 20 Feb. 2025 Did you know? The opening lines of the rock band Wilco’s song “My Darling,” sung from the perspective of a parent calming their sleepless child, demonstrate a very common use of the word darling: “Go back to sleep now, my darling / And I’ll keep all the bad dreams away.” Darling is an ancient word, traceable all the way back to the Old English noun dēorling, which was formed by attaching the suffix -ling to the adjective dēore, the ancestor of dear, which describes that which is regarded very affectionately or fondly, is highly valued or esteemed, or is beloved. Darling, as in “my darling,” is often used as a term of endearment, whether for a child or a sweetheart, but it can also be used as a synonym of the noun favorite, as in “the word darling has proven itself a darling of songwriters for many centuries.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 10, 2025 is: uncanny • \un-KAN-ee\  • adjective Uncanny is typically used to describe something that is strange or unusual in a way that is surprising or difficult to understand. It can also describe something that seems to have a supernatural character or origin. // The child has an uncanny ability to recognize streets and locations she's seen only once or twice before. // The lights suddenly flickered, and we were both overcome with an eerie, uncanny feeling. See the entry > Examples: "... as Nelson Moultrie walked through the cemetery and observed trees growing in ways that resemble the shapes of people, like one that bore an uncanny resemblance to a pair of legs, she said she's already felt the presence of the people buried there." — Laura Liebman, The Post & Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), 21 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Uncanny describes that which unsettles us, such as disquieting observations, or mysterious situations and circumstances. Strip the word of its prefix, though, and you're left with canny, a word that can be used as a synonym for clever and prudent. While canny and uncanny don't appear to be antonyms, they both come from an early Scots word canny meaning "free from risk; wise, prudent, cautious." And in Scots, canny has for centuries had a secondary meaning more similar to that of its mysterious cousin: the Oxford English Dictionary defines a sense of the word used chiefly in negative constructions (e.g., “not canny”) to describe what is not safe to be involved with, or more broadly, what is not in accordance with what is right or natural, as in "the idea is not canny." Rather uncanny.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 9, 2025 is: gloss • \GLAHSS\  • verb To gloss a word or phrase is to provide its meaning, or in other words, to explain or define it. // Many unfamiliar terms are glossed in the book’s introduction. See the entry > Examples: “It is revealing that early dictionaries regularly defined equality as ‘conformity,’ or glossed the word, like Noah Webster did in 1806, as ‘likeness, evenness, uniformity.’” — Darrin M. McMahon, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1 Apr. 2024 Did you know? If you’re the type of word nerd who finds poring over book glossaries to be the bee’s knees, we know you’ll get a buzz from this gloss of the verb gloss. To gloss something, such as a word or phrase, is to explain or define it. The noun gloss, it follows, refers to (among other things) a brief explanation of a word or expression. And a glossary of course is a collection of textual glosses, or of specialized terms, with their meanings. Both forms of gloss, as well as the word glossary, trace back to the Greek noun glôssa, meaning “tongue,” “language,” or “obscure word requiring explanation.” Another descendent of glôssa, the English noun glossa, refers not to a bee’s knees but to a bee’s tongue, or to the tongue of another insect.