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  1. Word of the Day: Scrutinize | Merriam-Webster

    Mar 21, 2026 · Scrutinize the history of scrutinize far back enough and you wind up sifting through trash: the word comes from Latin scrutari, which means 'to search, to examine,' and scrutari likely comes from

  2. Word of the Day: Numinous | Merriam-Webster

    Oct 10, 2024 · When people of the 1600s were ruminating on an adjective to reflect their awe of the mystical and supernatural elements of their experiences, they gave the nod to numinous, and quite …

  3. Word of the Day: Concatenate | Merriam-Webster

    Jun 4, 2023 · Concatenate is a fancy word for a simple thing: it means “to link together in a series or chain.” It’s Latin in origin, formed from a word combining con-, meaning “with” or “together,” and catena,

  4. Word of the Day: Lionize | Merriam-Webster

    Sep 24, 2023 · Across time and across cultures—as evidenced from Chauvet-Pont d’Arc’s paintings to The Lion King—lions have captured people’s imaginations. Though the big cats themselves are …

  5. Word of the Day: Succor | Merriam-Webster

    Sep 14, 2024 · If you're a sucker for etymology, buckle in as we aid in your understanding of succor. This word comes from the Anglo-French noun sucor (or sucors), which essentially had the same …

  6. Word of the Day: Propensity | Merriam-Webster

    Aug 20, 2024 · If you’re partial to picking synonyms of propensity, perhaps peruse the letter 'p,' which predominates for such words, in our pages. Proclivity, preference, penchant, and predilection all …

  7. Word of the Day: Circumscribe | Merriam-Webster

    Dec 8, 2019 · Circumscribe has a lot of relatives in English. Its Latin predecessor circumscribere (which roughly translates as 'to draw a circle around') derives from circum-, meaning 'circle,' and scribere,

  8. Word of the Day: Zaftig | Merriam-Webster

    Mar 4, 2016 · Over the centuries, some women have been approvingly described as full-figured, shapely, womanly, curvy, curvaceous, voluptuous, and statuesque. Such women are, in a word, …

  9. Word of the Day: Galvanize | Merriam-Webster

    Dec 3, 2021 · Luigi Galvani was an Italian physician and physicist who, in the 1770s, studied the electrical nature of nerve impulses by applying electrical stimulation to frogs' leg muscles, causing …

  10. Word of the Day: Flocculate | Merriam-Webster

    May 4, 2018 · In the late 16th century, scientists noticed that the loose masses separated from a solution or suspension through precipitation often resembled tufts of wool, and they began to refer to …