Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 28, 2024 is:

ken \KEN\  noun

Ken refers to someone’s range of perception, knowledge, or understanding, and is most often used in phrases like “beyond/outside/within one’s ken.”

// The author advised the aspiring writers in the crowd to develop an authoritative voice by sticking to subjects within their ken.

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Examples:

“… I’m still pretty much an amateur when it comes to gardening. Creating showy displays of florals along a pathway or verdant plots of perennials in shady backyard nooks—well, much of that is still beyond my ken. I don’t know my spurges from my woodruffs.” — Larry Cornies, The London (Ontario) Free Press, 3 June 2023

Did you know?

Need a word that can encompass all that one perceives, understands, or knows? It’s just ken. Of course, whether someone is a president, writer, physicist, diplomat, journalist, or even a stereotypical Barbie, everyone has their own personal ken. So when someone says something is “beyond” it, they’re not admitting to being a gosling, only that the topic or question at hand is beyond their particular range of knowledge or expertise. Ken appeared on the English horizon in the 16th century referring to the distance bounding the range of ordinary vision at sea (about 20 miles), and would thus have been familiar to skippers in particular. Its meaning soon broadened, however, to mean “range of vision” or “sight” on land or sea. Today ken rarely suggests literal sight, but rather the extent of what one can metaphorically “see.” And that, as they say, is enough.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 27, 2024 is:

assail \uh-SAIL\  verb

Assail has a number of meanings relating to violent or powerful confrontations. It can be a straightforward synonym of assault, as in "assailed by armed robbers," or it can mean "to oppose, challenge, or criticize harshly and forcefully," as in "citizens assailing the proposed changes." It can also mean "to trouble or afflict in a way that threatens to overwhelm," as in "assailed by fears." Assail can also apply to powerful perceptions: a smell that assails you, for example, is strongly noticeable and usually unpleasant. Occasionally, assail is used to mean "to encounter, undertake, or confront energetically," as in "with a deadline fast approaching, we assailed the project with renewed vigor."

// Most worthwhile achievements require that one persevere even when assailed by doubts.

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Examples:

"What does it even mean to be good in a world as complex as ours, when great inequity remains unaddressed and often seems too daunting to assail, and when seemingly benign choices—which shoes to buy, which fruit to eat—can come with the moral baggage of large carbon footprints or the undercompensated labor of migrant workers?" — Nancy Kaffer, The Detroit (Michigan) Free Press, 9 Jan. 2020

Did you know?

If you're assailed by doubts about the word assail, allow us to set your mind at ease by providing some surety. Assail comes, by way of Anglo-French, from the Latin verb assilire ("to leap upon"), which in turn comes from the Latin verb salire, meaning "to leap." (Salire is the root of a number of English words related to jumping and leaping, such as somersault and sally, as well as assault, a synonym of assail.) When assail was first used in the 13th century, it meant "to make a violent physical attack upon." By the early 15th century, English speakers were using the term to mean "to attack with words or arguments." Now the verb can apply to any kind of aggressive encounter, even if it is not necessarily violent or quarrelsome, as in "Upon entering the room, we were assailed by a horrible odor."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 26, 2024 is:

homage \AH-mij\  noun

An homage is something that is done to honor someone or something. It is often used with the word pay (as in “pay homage”) to mean “to respect or honor.”

// Her latest book is an homage to her favorite city.

// The paintings in the new art gallery pay homage to women artists of the past.

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Examples:

“The series also pays homage to Detroit with its brutal winters, chicken spots and fur-draped residents. It’s a city grounded in Black culture, which is only now beginning to reemerge after years of negligence.” — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 21 Mar. 2024

Did you know?

In medieval times, a person could officially become a vassal of a king or lord by publicly announcing allegiance to him in a formal ceremony. In that ritual, known as homage (from the Latin root homo-, meaning “man”), the subject (who was usually but not always a man) knelt and placed his hands between those of his lord, symbolically surrendering himself and putting himself at the lord’s disposal and under his jurisdiction. A bond was thus forged between the two; the vassal’s part was to revere and serve his lord, and the lord’s role was to protect and provide for the vassal and his family. The symbolism attached to the word proved irresistible, and homage quickly broadened to apply with the meaning “respect or honor” in a variety of contexts. Today, a singer can pay homage to someone who influenced their career, and a recipe can be an homage to a chef’s hometown.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2024 is:

tendentious \ten-DEN-shus\  adjective

Tendentious is a formal word used disapprovingly to describe someone or something expressing a strongly biased point of view in a way that may cause argument.

// The book proved to be a tendentious account of the town's history, written to rescue the reputation of one of its less scrupulous founders.

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Examples:

“Polls can have their own politics, and media polls are often accused of being tendentious.” — Joseph Epstein, The Wall Street Journal, 26 Oct. 2021

Did you know?

Tendentious is one of several words English speakers can choose when they want to suggest that someone has made up their mind in advance. You may be partial to predisposed or prone to favor partisan, but whatever your leanings, we’re inclined to think you’ll benefit from adding tendentious to your repertoire. Tendentious is a relatively recent arrival to English, considering its Latin roots. In the latter half of the 19th century, English users took the Latinate stem tendenti- (from tendentia, meaning “tendency”) and combined it with the familiar adjective suffix -ious to form a word describing someone with a tendency to favor a particular point of view, motivated by an intent to promote a particular cause.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 24, 2024 is:

burgeon \BER-jun\  verb

To burgeon is to grow or develop quickly—in other words to flourish, blossom or sprout.

// The trout population in the stream has burgeoned since the town implemented its laws against overfishing.

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Examples:

"From the quaint charm of its historic downtown to the dynamic energy of its burgeoning Arts District, Gilbert [Arizona] offers something for everyone." — Lux Butler, The Arizona Republic, 7 Mar. 2024

Did you know?

Burgeon arrived in Middle English as burjonen, a borrowing from the Anglo-French verb burjuner, meaning "to bud or sprout." Burgeon is often used figuratively, as when writer Ta-Nehisi Coates used it in his 2008 memoir The Beautiful Struggle: "… I was in the burgeoning class of kids whose families made too much for financial aid but not enough to make tuition payments anything less than a war." Usage commentators have objected to the use of burgeon to mean "to flourish" or "to grow rapidly," insisting that any figurative use should stay true to the word's earliest literal meaning and distinguish budding or sprouting from subsequent growing. But the sense of burgeon that indicates growing or expanding and prospering (as in "the burgeoning music scene" or "the burgeoning international market") has been in established use for decades and is, in fact, the most common use of burgeon today.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2024 is:

exodus \EK-suh-dus\  noun

An exodus is a situation in which many people leave a place at the same time—in other words a mass departure or emigration.

// The resort town eagerly anticipated the mass exodus from the cities to its beaches as summer approached.

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Examples:

“Experts link lower rents to a possible drop in demand after population losses during a recent exodus from parts of Southern California. As the state’s population has stagnated, some believe demand may cool and dampen rent growth.” — Anthony de Leon, The Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 2024

Did you know?

The Biblical book of Exodus describes the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, so it's no surprise that the word exodus, uncapitalized, has come to refer more generally to any mass departure. Exodus was adopted into English (via Latin) from the Greek word Exodos, which literally means “the road out.” Exodos was formed by combining the prefix ex-, meaning “out of,” and hodos, meaning “road” or “way.” Indeed, many roads led out of hodos into English; other hodos descendants include episode, method, odometer, and period. While exodus is occasionally encountered in reference to an individual’s leaving (e.g., “his/her/their exodus”), such usage is likely to raise the eyebrows of editors who feel it should only refer to the departure en masse of a large group of people, as when novelist Nnedi Okorafor writes in her science fiction novel Lagoon (2015): “Everyone was trying to get somewhere, be it a church, a bar, home or out of Lagos. Then there was the exodus of people … to the parts of the city that had the least chance of flooding if the water rose too high.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 22, 2024 is:

palpable \PAL-puh-bul\  adjective

Something described as palpable is obvious and notable. Palpable may also be used as a synonym of tangible to describe something that can be perceived by one's sense of touch.

// The tension in the courtroom was palpable as the jury foreman stood to announce the verdict.

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Examples:

"The power of the ancestral people who built Cliff Palace feels palpable as I stand inside the cliff hollow, marvelling at towers and rooms that slot together perfectly." — Linda Barnard, The Toronto Star, 16 Sept. 2023

Did you know?

If you find it fascinating how English speakers push words with concrete meanings into figurative use, we feel you. By which we mean we understand you, of course, not that we are patting your head or poking you in the shoulder. Palpable, which has since the 14th century described things that can be literally felt through the skin (such as a person’s pulse), has undergone an expansion similar to that of feel over the centuries, and is now more frequently used to describe things that cannot be touched but are still so easy to perceive that it is as though they could be—such as "a palpable tension in the air."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 21, 2024 is:

noblesse oblige \noh-BLESS-uh-BLEEZH\  noun

Noblesse oblige refers to the idea that people who have high social rank or wealth should be helpful and generous to people of lower rank or to people who are poor.

// As the inheritor of a great fortune, he was raised to have a strong sense of noblesse oblige, not only volunteering and donating to charity, but advocating for structural change to address inequality.

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Examples:

“As is usually the case, actual research reveals that the pair bond of the cardinal is not really sacrosanct. The ostensibly quaint couples we see regularly have a 20% divorce rate, which is of course better than our own, but they are not exactly swans. And while they are mated, they are generally monogamous, but polygyny is known. It is, however, usually observed in cases where the male of an adjacent territory goes missing or because an unmated female persists in foraging and remaining in a male’s territory. A strange form of noblesse oblige. It has not been determined whether these second pairings produce any offspring.” — Bill Chaisson, The Eagle Times (Claremont, New Hampshire), 20 Jan. 2024

Did you know?

In a tale collected in 16th-century Germany, a noblewoman wonders why the hungry poor don’t simply eat Krosem (a sweet bread), her cluelessness prefiguring the later, much more famous quote attributed to Marie Antoinette: “let them eat cake.” The queen never actually said that, but we can think of the sentiment behind noblesse oblige as the quote’s opposite—something more like “let us bake them a cake since we own all the eggs/flour/sugar/etc.” In French, noblesse oblige means literally “nobility obligates.” It was first quoted in English in the early 19th century, before being used as a noun referring to the unwritten obligation of aristocrats to act honorably and generously to others. Later, by extension, it also came to refer to the obligation of anyone who is in a better position than others—due, for example, to high office or celebrity—to act respectably and responsibly.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 20, 2024 is:

gingerly \JIN-jer-lee\  adjective

An act or manner described as gingerly is very cautious or careful.

// It’s a delicate subject, and we need to approach it with gingerly care and tact.

// The antelope moved with a gingerly gait that suggested it was hurt.

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Examples:

“Note: bears do not in a gingerly manner put their paws against each stem of a lovely ripe pear and gently pull upward against the branch, the proper harvesting method. ‘Picked’ in bear-lingo means tearing down carefully constructed tree cages and knocking as many branches to the ground as needed; then taking several bites out of each luscious pear, leaving scattered remnants all over the ground ...” — Cate Gable, The Chinook Observer (Long Beach, Washington), 14 Oct. 2020

Did you know?

Though more common as an adverb meaning “very cautiously and carefully,” as in “moving gingerly across the icy pond,” gingerly has for more than four centuries functioned both as an adverb and as an adjective. Etymologists take a gingerly approach to assigning any particular origins to gingerly. While it might have come from the name of the spice, there’s nothing concrete to back up that idea. Another theory is that it’s related to an Old French word, gençor, meaning “prettier” or “more beautiful,” with evidence being that in 16th century English an earlier sense of gingerly often described dancing or walking done with dainty steps. It wasn’t until the 17th century that gingerly was applied to movements done with caution in order to avoid being noisy or causing injury, and to a wary manner in handling or presenting ideas.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 19, 2024 is:

underwhelm \un-der-WELM\  verb

To underwhelm someone is to fail to impress or excite them.

// Despite the hype, the movie underwhelmed most reviewers, who criticized its slow pace and poor special effects.

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Examples:

"Wake me up when NBA All-Star Weekend ends. Let’s start with the Dunk Contest, which is supposed to be the most exciting event. It wasn’t. Most of the dunks, and the judging of said dunks, underwhelmed." — Zachary Pereles, CBS Sports, 19 Feb. 2024

Did you know?

Overwhelm and its rare synonym whelm have both been around since the Middle Ages, but underwhelm is a 20th-century coinage. Both overwhelm and whelm come from the Middle English whelmen, meaning "to turn over" or "to cover up." Underwhelm is a playful overturning of overwhelm that is well suited for contexts in which something fails to excite. As is often the case with younger words, there is a certain amount of misinformation regarding where underwhelm came from. We have seen reports that the playwright George S. Kaufman coined it, and also that the famed sportswriter Red Smith claimed to have used it first. Neither of these is likely to be accurate, for the simple fact that there is evidence that underwhelming was used, albeit as an adjective, before either of these men was born.