Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

gamut

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 16, 2026 is: gamut • \GAM-ut\  • noun A gamut is a range or series of related things. When we say that something “runs the gamut,” we are saying that it encompasses an entire range of related things. // The flea market offerings run the gamut with a wide array of vendors each offering something unique. See the entry > [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gamut] Examples: “... she brings a certain je ne sais quoi [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/je-ne-sais-quoi] to the production with themes running the gamut from circuses and rodeos to mermaids and pirates.” — Heather Douglas, Coast Weekend (Astoria, Oregon), 23 Apr. 2026 Did you know? With the song “Do-Re-Mi,” the 1965 musical film The Sound of Music [https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Sound-of-Music-film-by-Wise] (adapted from the 1958 stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein) introduced millions of non-musicians to solfège [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/solfege], the singing of the sol-fa syllables [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sol-fa-syllables]—do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti—to teach the tones of a musical scale. Centuries earlier, however, the do in “Do-Re-Mi” was known as ut. Indeed, the first note on the scale of Guido d’Arezzo [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guido-dArezzo-Italian-musician], an 11th century musician and monk who had his own way of applying syllables to musical tones, was ut. d’Arezzo also called the first line of his bass staff gamma, which meant that gamma-ut was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, gamma-ut underwent a shortening to gamut, and later its meaning expanded first to cover all the notes of d’Arezzo’s scale, then to cover all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, to cover an entire range of any sort.

tenuous

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 15, 2026 is: tenuous • \TEN-yoo-us\  • adjective Something described as tenuous is flimsy, weak, or uncertain. // The theater had a tenuous existence for years, but today is on much more solid financial footing. See the entry > [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tenuous] Examples: “While more non-screen-based interactive technology could be an antidote to our screen-obsessed society, it’s an extremely tenuous link to more human interaction ...” — Jennifer Pattinson Tuohy, The Verge, 4 May 2026 Did you know? Lean into the history of tenuous and you’ll find that the word comes to English from the Latin adjective tenuis, meaning “fine-drawn, thin, narrow, or slight,” and is a relative of thin. Like that more familiar word, tenuous has a wide array of meanings: it can describe a literal thinness, as in “a silkworm’s tenuous threads,” or rarity (the opposite of density), as in “a tenuous fluid,” or it can describe things that are figuratively thin or flimsy. If one team in a game has a tenuous lead, either team still has a chance at winning. If there is only a tenuous connection between two events, those events are likely unrelated.

tenuous

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 15, 2026 is: tenuous • \TEN-yoo-us\  • adjective Something described as tenuous is flimsy, weak, or uncertain. // The theater had a tenuous existence for years, but today is on much more solid financial footing. See the entry > [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tenuous] Examples: “While more non-screen-based interactive technology could be an antidote to our screen-obsessed society, it’s an extremely tenuous link to more human interaction ...” — Jennifer Pattinson Tuohy, The Verge, 4 May 2026 Did you know? Lean into the history of tenuous and you’ll find that the word comes to English from the Latin adjective tenuis, meaning “fine-drawn, thin, narrow, or slight,” and is a relative of thin. Like that more familiar word, tenuous has a wide array of meanings: it can describe a literal thinness, as in “a silkworm’s tenuous threads,” or rarity (the opposite of density), as in “a tenuous fluid,” or it can describe things that are figuratively thin or flimsy. If one team in a game has a tenuous lead, either team still has a chance at winning. If there is only a tenuous connection between two events, those events are likely unrelated.

emblazon

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 14, 2026 is: emblazon • \im-BLAY-zun\  • verb To emblazon something is to decorate its surface, usually with a name, slogan, or picture. // Her favorite souvenir from her trip to the Grand Canyon was a t-shirt emblazoned with a rosy sunset over the famous chasm. See the entry > [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emblazon] Examples: “Later that week we were boarding our flight with the painting secured in an enormous case with a toothy, bespectacled cartoon squirrel emblazoned on the back and a speech bubble that read ‘I’M JUST NUTS ABOUT PUZZLES!’” — Orlando Whitfield, All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art, 2025 Did you know? Blazon [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blazon] is a less commonly used synonym of the more familiar coat of arms [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coat%20of%20arms]. Both centuries-old terms refer to heraldic [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heraldic] designs, symbols, and other imagery (think crosses, lions, stripes, etc.) that typically appear on banners, shields, armor, and elsewhere. The verb form of blazon meaning “to depict heraldic figures or designs in drawing or engraving” and emblazon, “to inscribe or adorn with or as if with heraldic figures or designs,” came into use around the same time in the late 1500s, from the French spoken in medieval England. (The word heraldry [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heraldry], also ultimately from Anglo-French, came into use then too.) Emblazon still refers to marking something with an emblem of heraldry, but it is now more often used for adorning or publicizing something in any conspicuous way, whether with eye-catching decoration or colorful words of praise.

hale

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 13, 2026 is: hale • \HAIL\  • adjective Someone described as hale is in good and often exceptional health. Hale is commonly used in the phrase "hale and hearty." // Their mother remains hale and hearty in her old age. See the entry > [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hale] Examples: "Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell star [in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes] as two vivacious all-American showgirls whose friendship is as fast as their attitudes to men are poles apart. Whereas Monroe's Lorelei Lee prizes wealth and devotion in a suitor, Russell's Dorothy Shaw is more inclined towards the hale and hunky ..." — Robbie Collin, The Telegraph (United Kingdom), 2 May 2026 Did you know? English has two hale homographs [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homograph]: the adjective that is frequently paired with hearty [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hearty] to describe those healthy and strong, and the somewhat uncommon verb that has to do with literal or figurative hauling or pulling. (One can hale a boat onto shore, or hale a person into a courtroom with the aid of legal ramifications for resistance.) The verb comes from the Middle English halen (also the root of our word haul [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haul]), but the adjective has a bifurcated origin, with two Middle English terms identified as sources: hale and hail. Both of those come from words meaning "healthy," the former from the Old English hāl, and the latter from the Old Norse heill. The Middle English hail is also the source of the three modern English words spelled as hail [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hail#h3], the verb, interjection, and noun that have to do with greeting.