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  • doff

    doff

    · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 27, 2025 is:

    doff • \DAHF\  • verb

    To doff a hat or other piece of clothing is to take it off.

    // They doffed their coats when they came inside the house.

    See the entry >

    Examples:

    “On the ferry from Oakland to San Francisco [Oscar] Wilde was introduced to a group of reporters who courteously doffed their hats. Wilde failed to return the gesture, much to the annoyance of one interviewer who used it as a pretext for blasting Wilde in his article.” — Rob Marland, LitHub.com, 11 Mar. 2024

    Did you know?

    Time was, people talked about doffing and donning articles of clothing with about the same frequency. But in the mid-19th century the verb don became significantly more popular and left doff to flounder a bit in linguistic semi-obscurity. Doff and don have been a pair from the start: both date to the 14th century, with doff arising as a Middle English contraction of the phrase “to do off” and don as a contraction of “to do on.” Shakespeare was among the first, as far as we know, to use the word as it’s defined in the more general sense of “to rid oneself of” or “put aside.” He has Juliet give voice to this sense when she says, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet. / 
 Romeo, doff thy name; / And for that name, which is no part of thee, / Take all myself.”



  • ignoramus

    ignoramus

    · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 26, 2025 is:

    ignoramus • \ig-nuh-RAY-mus\  • noun

    An ignoramus is an utterly ignorant or stupid person.

    // I can't believe they let an ignoramus like that run the company.

    See the entry >

    Examples:

    "The alleged purpose of the [fee] increase was to discourage young people from taking courses that didn't lead to jobs where the demand for workers was great. Predictably, it didn't work. And only an ignoramus would regard an arts degree as of little value." — Ross Gittins, The Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, 7 Aug. 2024

    Did you know?

    Ignoramus is the title of a farce by George Ruggle (1575-1622) that was first produced in 1615. The title character, whose name in Latin literally means "we are ignorant of," is a lawyer who fancies himself to be quite clever but is actually foolish and ignorant. Ruggle may have been inspired in his choice of the name by a proceeding in the English judicial system: the term ignoramus was written on bills of indictment when the evidence presented seemed insufficient to justify prosecution. In these cases ignoramus indicated "we take no notice of (i.e., we do not recognize) this indictment." Such a reference would have been most appropriate for Ruggle's satire of the judiciary.



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  • superfluous

    superfluous

    · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 25, 2025 is:

    superfluous • \soo-PER-floo-us\  • adjective

    Superfluous is a formal word used to describe things that exceed what is necessary or sufficient, or that are simply not needed.

    // Further discussion seems superfluous, given the thorough conversation we just had.

    See the entry >

    Examples:

    “On the final single from his album Manning Fireworks, MJ Lenderman sketches a character study of a man so preoccupied with superfluous status symbols that he finds himself totally isolated from the world.” — Arielle Gordon, Pitchfork, 2 Dec. 2024

    Did you know?

    If, say, you were to go chasing waterfalls in addition to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to, such a pursuit would be superfluous. In other words, you would be exceeding what is necessary to satisfy your need for water-based enjoyment and recreation. “You’ve already got rivers and lakes,” your friends might advise with a bit of TLC, “just stick to them!” “Extra water” is also key to understanding the history of the word superfluous, which entered Middle English from the Latin adjective superfluus, meaning literally “running over.” Superfluus, in turn, comes from the verb superfluere (“to overflow”), which combines the prefix super- (meaning “over”) and fluere, “to flow.” In addition to influencing superfluous, fluere also flowed into the English words affluent, influence, and fluid, among others.



  • quip

    quip

    · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 24, 2025 is:

    quip • \KWIP\  • noun

    Quip can refer to a clever, usually taunting remark, or to a witty or funny observation or response usually made on the spur of the moment.

    // They traded quips over a beer and laughed themselves silly.

    See the entry >

    Examples:

    "He's always got a story, is always ready with a quip and isn't afraid to let the four-letter words roll off the tongue in the most creative ways." — Nathan Brown, The Indianapolis Star, 26 Apr. 2023

    Did you know?

    To tweak a well-known line from Hamlet, brevity is the soul of quip. While jokes are often brief stories with setups followed by surprising and funny endings (chickens crossing roads, elephant footprints in the butter, etc.) quips are even briefer, and not so planned or scripted. They are more likely to arise naturally in conversation when someone is especially quick-witted, firing off zingers, retorts, or—if you want to get extra fancy about it—bon mots. Brevity also plays a role in quip's etymology: quip is a shortening of quippy, a now-obsolete noun of the same meaning. Quippy's origins are uncertain, but they may lie in the Latin word quippe, meaning "indeed" or "to be sure," which was often used ironically. Quip entered English as a noun in the 1500s, but was verbified within decades; the verb quip means "to make quips" or "to jest or jibe at."



  • tousle

    tousle

    · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 23, 2025 is:

    tousle • \TOW-zul\  • verb

    To tousle something is to dishevel it—that is, to make it untidy or unkempt. Tousle is usually, though not always, used specifically when a person’s hair is being so treated.

    // Vic stood in front of the mirror and tousled his hair, trying to get a cool, disheveled look.

    See the entry >

    Examples:

    “One of her hands tousled her long hair, which she wore down, and the other hand hovered in front of her skirt as she hooked a thumb in its waistband. She paired the fashion set with a choker necklace and dangling hoop earrings.” — Meghan Roos, Parade, 21 Mar. 2024

    Did you know?

    The verb tousle today is typically used for the action of mussing someone’s hair playfully (“tousling the toddler’s hair”) or fussily (“tousling her tresses for that just-woke-up look”), but the word’s history is a bit edgier. Tousle and its synonym touse come from -tousen (“to pull or handle roughly”), a frequentative of the Middle English verb touselen. (A frequentative indicates repeated or recurrent action; sniffle, for example, is a frequentative of sniff.) Both tousle and touse have older meanings having to do with rough handling in general; before hair was tousled, people were—ouch. It’s no coincidence that another frequentative of -tousen, the Scots word tussillen, is the ancestor of the English verb tussle, meaning “to scuffle” or “to fight or struggle with someone by grabbing or pushing.”



  • astute

    astute

    · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 22, 2025 is:

    astute • \uh-STOOT\  • adjective

    Someone or something described as astute has or shows an ability to notice and understand things clearly. In other words, they are mentally sharp or clever. Astute can also describe someone who is crafty or wily.

    // They made some astute observations about the movie industry.

    // Astute readers will notice the error.

    See the entry >

    Examples:

    “Geraldine and Claire were out walking their dog, Daisy. They felt as though Daisy was very astute at reacting to their mood, rather than reflecting it.” — Robbie Meredith, BBC, 4 Dec. 2024

    Did you know?

    Road Runner always bests Wile E. Coyote in the famous Looney Tunes cartoon series, but both characters help demonstrate meanings of the word astute. Astute comes from the Latin adjective astutus, meaning “cunning, crafty, or clever,” which in turn comes from the noun astus, meaning “craft.” The English adjective, accordingly, can describe both the crafty and the wily. It’s easy to see how this applies to Wile E. Coyote: in each episode, Road Runner races along the highways of the American Southwest while the coyote sets an elaborate trap for the bird, usually with the aid of some goofy product ordered from the fictitious Acme company. But alas, Road Runner is astute, as in “mentally sharp or clever.” In other words, he is not only quick on his feet, but quick on the uptake. He usually catches wind of the schemes, which ultimately backfire due to either the products’ chronic unreliability or Coyote’s own ineptitude. Road Runner, never captured or damaged, responds with a characteristic “Beep! Beep!” and runs off.



  • jabberwocky

    jabberwocky

    · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 21, 2025 is:

    jabberwocky • \JAB-er-wah-kee\  • noun

    Jabberwocky refers to meaningless speech or writing.

    // When the character gets angry or flustered, she talks in a sort of agitated jabberwocky that is really quite comical.

    See the entry >

    Examples:

    "The British press now converted the book into their native tongue, that jabberwocky of bonkers hot takes and classist snark. Facts were wrenched out of context, complex emotions were reduced to cartoonish idiocy, innocent passages were hyped into outrages—and there were so many falsehoods." — J. R. Moehringer, The New Yorker, 15 May 2023

    Did you know?

    In his poem titled "Jabberwocky," from Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll warned readers about a frightful beast:

    Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
    The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
    Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
    The frumious Bandersnatch!

    This nonsensical poem caught the public's fancy upon its publication in late 1871, and by the turn of the 20th century jabberwocky was being used as a generic term for meaningless speech or writing. The word bandersnatch has also seen some use as a general noun, with the meaning "a wildly grotesque or bizarre individual." It's a much rarer word than jabberwocky, though, and is entered only in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.



  • flounder

    flounder

    · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 20, 2025 is:

    flounder • \FLOUN-der\  • verb

    To flounder is to struggle, whether that struggle is about moving or obtaining footing (as in “horses floundering through deep snow”) or about knowing what to do or say.

    // Caught off-guard by the reporter’s question, the mayor floundered for a few moments before remembering the talking points he had rehearsed.

    See the entry >

    Examples:

    “In those early days we floundered in a city we didn’t know. Tottenham in 1992 wasn’t the London we’d imagined. There were no top hats, no smog, no Holmes, no Watson, no ladies, no gents, and no afternoon tea. Not for us. We lived in a different London. In our London, people swore and spat, drank, quarreled, and laughed in fretful bursts. They spoke strange words in accents we couldn’t parse.” — Leo Vardiashvili, Hard By a Great Forest, 2024

    Did you know?

    There’s nothing fishy about flounder... the verb, that is. While the noun referring to a common food fish is of Scandinavian origin, the verb flounder, which dates to the late 16th century, is likely an alteration of an older verb, founder. The two verbs have been confused ever since. Today, founder is most often used as a synonym of fail, or, in contexts involving a waterborne vessel, as a word meaning “to fill with water and sink.” Formerly, it was also frequently applied when a horse stumbled badly and was unable to keep walking. It’s likely this sense of founder led to the original and now-obsolete meaning of flounder: “to stumble.” In modern use, flounder typically means “to struggle” or “to act clumsily”; the word lacks the finality of founder, which usually suggests complete collapse or failure, as that of a sinking ship.



  • obtuse

    obtuse

    · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 19, 2025 is:

    obtuse • \ahb-TOOSS\  • adjective

    Obtuse is a formal word that describes someone who is not able to think clearly or to understand what is obvious or simple. It can also suggest a refusal to see something apparent to others, or a willful ignorance of or insensitivity to the real facts of a situation. Obtuse can also describe something that is difficult to understand because it is unclear or imprecise.

    // They were too obtuse to take a hint.

    // The text is poorly written and downright obtuse.

    See the entry >

    Examples:

    “Engineers love complicated problems, but we have a reputation for being obtuse about personal interactions. I often tell my fellow engineers, ‘You won't find any problems more complicated than those involving people.’” — Bill Austin, Inc.com, 15 Jan. 2025

    Did you know?

    There’s a lot to understand about obtuse, so we’ll get straight to the point. Obtuse comes from a Latin word, obtusus, meaning “dull” or “blunt.” It can describe a geometric angle that is not acute (in other words one that exceeds 90 degrees but is less than 180 degrees), a leaf that is rounded at its free end, or a person who isn’t thinking clearly or who otherwise refuses to see something apparent to others—if someone asks you if you’re being obtuse about something, they are not paying you a compliment. Another common sense (no pun intended) of obtuse related to apprehension is “hard to comprehend,” often applied to speech or writing that isn’t clearly expressed or thought out. This sense may have developed due to the influence of two similar-sounding words: abstruse, a formal word that also means “hard to comprehend,” and obscure, a word that can mean, among other things, “not readily understood or clearly expressed.”



  • chutzpah

    chutzpah

    · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

    Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 18, 2025 is:

    chutzpah • \KHOOTS-puh\  • noun

    Chutzpah is audacious boldness often paired with reckless self-confidence. Someone with chutzpah dares to do or say things that seem shocking to others.

    // It took a lot of chutzpah to stand up to her boss the way she did.

    See the entry >1. list text here

    Examples:

    “... [Anne] Hathaway is not easily talked out of things she believes in. She took drama classes, understudied future Tony winner Laura Benanti in a production of Jane Eyre at 14, and had the chutzpah to write to an agent with her headshot at 15.” — Julie Miller, Vanity Fair, 25 Mar. 2024

    Did you know?

    The word chutzpah has been boldly circulating through English since the mid-1800s. It comes from the Yiddish word khutspe, which comes in turn from the Hebrew word hÌŁusÌŁpāh. The ch in chutzpah indicates a rasping sound from the back of the throat that exists in many languages, including Yiddish. That sound is not part of English phonology, so it follows that the c is sometimes dropped in both the pronunciation and spelling of the word. Some speakers of Yiddish feel that chutzpah has been diluted in English use, no longer properly conveying the monumental nature of the gall that is implied. A classic example can be found in Leo Rosten’s 1968 book The Joys of Yiddish, which defines chutzpah as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”