Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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nebulous
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 27, 2025 is: nebulous • \NEB-yuh-lus\ • adjective Nebulous is a formal word used to describe something that is difficult to see, understand, or describe—in other words, something indistinct or vague. // A lot of philosophical concepts can seem nebulous at first, but a good instructor can cut through the jargon and help students see how they apply to day-to-day life. See the entry > Examples: “[Rob] Harvilla began to notice the blurred lines of late-Nineties genres as he produced his podcast 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s and while writing its corresponding book. ‘The late Nineties were a weird, transitional wasteland,’ he says. All of these genres that had such stark lines in the Nineties have now become a more nebulous concept, blending into one supergenre of just ‘Nineties music.’” — Brittany Spanos, Rolling Stone, 21 July 2025 Did you know? Nebulous may sound otherworldly—after all, it’s related to nebula, which refers to an interstellar cloud of gas or dust—but its mysteriousness is rooted in more earthly unknowns. Both words ultimately come from Latin nebula, meaning “mist, cloud,” and as far back as the 14th century nebulous could mean simply “cloudy” or “foggy.” Nebulous has since the late 17th century been the adjective correlating to nebula (as in “nebulous gas”), but the word is more familiar in its figurative use, where it describes things that are indistinct or vague, as when Teju Cole wrote of an avant-garde photographer who viewed photography as existing “neither in the camera nor in the printed photograph, but in a more nebulous zone.”
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trepidation
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 26, 2025 is: trepidation • \trep-uh-DAY-shun\ • noun Trepidation refers to a feeling of fear that causes someone to hesitate because they think that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen. // The students felt a sense of trepidation upon being summoned to the principal's office. See the entry > Examples: "Met by some with cautious optimism, others with trepidation, and others with doomsday predictions, there is no doubt that AI is here to stay and changing work in ways yet to be fully revealed." — Laurel Donnellan, Forbes, 28 May 2025 Did you know? If you've ever trembled with fright, you know something of both the sensation and etymology of trepidation. The word comes from the Latin verb trepidare, which means "to tremble." (Trepidare also gave English the verb trepidate, meaning "to feel nervous or apprehensive," but that word is now considered archaic.) Early meanings of trepidation, such as "tremulous motion" or "tremor," reflect its "shaky" origins. Over time, however, those senses gave way to our modern meaning referring to fearful hesitancy.
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undulant
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 25, 2025 is: undulant • \UN-juh-lunt\ • adjective Undulant describes things that rise and fall in waves, or things that have a wavy form, outline, or surface. // The exhibit featured a painting with beautiful green strokes that resembled undulant hills. See the entry > Examples: “Though tightly bound by our love of books, we bibliophiles are a sundry lot, managing our obsession in a grand variety of ways. We organize by title, by author, by genre, by topic. By color, by height, by width, by depth. … We stack books into attractive still lifes accompanied by a single tulip in a bud vase, or into risky, undulant towers poised to flatten a passing housecat.” — Monica Wood, LitHub.com, 7 May 2024 Did you know? If you’re looking for an adjective that encapsulates the rising and falling of the briny sea, wave hello to undulant. While not an especially common descriptor, it is useful not only for describing the ocean itself, but for everything from rolling hills to a snake’s sinuous movement to a fever that waxes and wanes. The root of undulant is, perhaps unsurprisingly, unda, a Latin word meaning “wave.” Other English words swimming the wake of unda include inundate, “to cover with a flood,” and undulate, “to form or move in waves.”
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cloister
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 24, 2025 is: cloister • \KLOY-ster\ • verb To cloister someone or something is to shut the person or thing away from the world. // The scientist cloistered himself in his laboratory all weekend to finish analyzing data. See the entry > Examples: “Now, the past Melbourne High student body president and co-valedictorian is planning to step down Jan. 20 after serving nearly four years as NASA’s administrator. ... ‘My constitution is such that I’m not going to retire. And what I said is, I’m going to cloister myself and write a book. And then, we’ll see what happens,’ [Bill] Nelson, who is now 82, told reporters Wednesday during a roundtable discussion at the Kennedy Space Center Press Site.” — Rick Neale, Florida Today, 19 Dec. 2024 Did you know? Cloister first entered the English language as a noun in the 13th century, referring then (as it still does) to a convent or monastery. More than three centuries later, English speakers began using the verb cloister to mean “to seclude in or as if in a cloister.” Today, the noun can also refer to the monastic life or to a covered and usually arched passage along or around a court. You may also encounter the adjective cloistered with the meaning “separated from the rest of the world [as if in a cloister],” as in “She leads a private, cloistered life in the country.” Cloister ultimately comes from the Latin verb claudere, meaning “to close.” Other words that can be traced back to the prolific claudere include close, conclude, exclude, include, preclude, seclude, and recluse.
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flagrant
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 23, 2025 is: flagrant • \FLAY-grunt\ • adjective Something may be described as flagrant if it is conspicuously bad—that is, too bad to be ignored. // In a flagrant violation of the family's code of ethics, someone finished the ice cream and left the empty container in the freezer. See the entry > Examples: "'It wasn't such a brilliant thought to sit on an artwork,' Vanessa Carlon, the museum's director, tells the New York Times' Claire Moses. Carlon says the incident highlights just how far people will go to get a good photo, as well as their flagrant lack of accountability. 'These two people decided to escape,' she adds. 'That was the behavior that really offended us.'" — Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 June 2025 Did you know? A flagrant foul in sports involves no flame or literal heat—it's just too conspicuously bad for referees to ignore—but the roots of flagrant are hot, hot, hot. In Latin, flagrāre means "to burn," and flagrans means "flaming" or "fiery" (both carry meanings relating to literal flames as well as the figurative flames of passion). When it was first used in the 16th century, flagrant had the same "flaming, fiery" meaning as flagrans, but by the 18th century it had acquired its current meaning of “conspicuously bad or offensive.” (Another flagrāre descendant in English, conflagration, retained its "fiery" meaning.) Some usage experts warn against using flagrant and blatant interchangeably. While both words apply to noticeable lapses, they are not true synonyms. Blatant (likely from a Latin word meaning “to chatter”) typically describes a person, action, or thing that attracts disapproving attention (e.g., "a blatant grammatical error"), while flagrant carries a heavier connotation of offense often for violated morality (e.g., "flagrant abuse of public office").
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