Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2025 is: travail • \truh-VAIL\  • noun Travail is a formal word, usually used in plural, that refers to a difficult experience or situation. // The book describes the political travails of the governor during her first year in office. See the entry > [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/travail] Examples: "Written by Samy Burch, the film [Coyote vs. Acme] follows the travails of the desert denizen who is tired of being slammed with Acme products as he tries to outsmart the Roadrunner. Coyote finally decides to hire a lawyer to take the Acme Corp. to court for product liability, such as faulty rocket skates and defective aerial bombs." — Meg James, The Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2025 Did you know? Travail traces back to trepalium, a Late Latin word for an instrument of torture. We don't know exactly what a trepalium looked like, but the word's history gives us an idea. Trepalium comes from the Latin adjective tripalis, which means "having three stakes" (from tri-, meaning "three," and palus, meaning "stake"). Trepalium eventually led to the Anglo-French verb travailler, meaning "to torment" but also, more mildly, "to trouble" and "to journey." The Anglo-French noun travail was borrowed into English in the 13th century, along with another descendant of travailler, travel [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/travel].

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 24, 2025 is: ostensible • \ah-STEN-suh-bul\  • adjective Ostensible is used to describe something that seems or is said to be true or real, but is possibly not true or real. In other words, it is plausible [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plausible] rather than demonstrably true or real. // The ostensible purpose of a filibuster [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/filibuster] is to extend debate, but in reality it is used to delay or prevent action. See the entry > [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ostensible] Examples: “No drums, no bass, no conventional song structures: Hosianna Mantra was a 40-minute contemplation of the cosmos and cosmic love, couched in words and sounds that explicitly linked it to humanity’s grandest and most consistent way of considering meaning, religion. The ostensible polytheism conveyed by the name and the concept were only ways to realize how little we actually know, and how much we wager through mere survival.” — Grayson Haver Currin, Pitchfork, 19 Jan. 2025 Did you know? British philosopher and economist Jeremy Bentham [https://www.britannica.com/money/Jeremy-Bentham] once wrote to Indian religious leader Ram Mohan Roy [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ram-Mohan-Roy] asking him to “send me two letters—one confidential, another ostensible.” By ostensible he meant that, unlike the confidential letter, the latter was intended to be shown to people other than Bentham himself. This sense of ostensible shows clearly the influence of the word’s Latin ancestor, the verb ostendere, meaning “to hold out for inspection,” “to show,” “to make clear by one’s actions,” and “to demonstrate.” Ostensible is still used today as it is in Bentham’s letter, but it is much more likely to suggest a discrepancy between a declared or implied aim or reason (i.e., the aim or reason that someone displays or “shows” to others) and the true one. For example, someone might give “seeing an old friend” as their ostensible reason for planning a trip when in reality they are planning on spending most of their time relaxing on the beach.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2025 is: slough • \SLUFF\  • verb Slough is a formal verb used for the action of getting rid of something unwanted. It is usually used with off. Slough can also mean "to lose a dead layer of (skin)" or "to become shed or cast off." // The editorial urges the mayor not to slough off responsibility for the errors in the report. // The exfoliating cleanser promises to gently slough away dead skin cells. See the entry > [https://bit.ly/4j4myvt] Examples: "Before she left her apartment, she gathered and washed some in a bowl. Then she drew a bath and soaked for a while, eating the figs one by one, swallowing even the hard stems. The steam and water loosened her tense muscles, and her aches started to vanish. She scrubbed herself until the dead skin sloughed off, and underneath, she was new." — Sally Wen Mao, Ninetails: Nine Tales, 2024 Did you know? There are two verbs spelled slough in English, as well as two nouns, and both sets have different pronunciations. The first noun [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slough], referring to a swamp or a discouraged state of mind, is pronounced to rhyme with either blue or cow. Its related verb [https://bit.ly/4hN4LrG], which can mean "to plod through mud," has the same pronunciation. The second noun [https://bit.ly/4j5F32r], pronounced to rhyme with cuff, refers to the shed skin of a snake (as well as anything else that has been cast off). Its related verb [https://bit.ly/4j4myvt] describes the action of shedding or eliminating something, just like a snake sheds its skin. This slough comes from Middle English slughe and is related to slūch, a Middle High German word meaning "snakeskin."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 22, 2025 is: liaison • \lee-AY-zahn\  • noun Liaison refers to a person who helps organizations or groups work together and provide information to each other, or to a relationship that allows such interactions. Liaison can also refer to an illicit sexual relationship. // The new position involves acting as a liaison between the police department and city schools. // The committee has maintained close liaison with some of the former board members. See the entry > [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liaison] Examples: “In 2019, [Jefri] Lindo found work at Bestia, the trendy downtown restaurant. ... He flourished there, working his way up to house expeditor [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expeditor], acting as the key liaison between the kitchen and dining room.” — Laura Tejeda, The Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2025 Did you know? If you took French in school, you might remember that liaison is the word for the phenomenon that causes a silent consonant at the end of one word to sound like it begins the next word when that word begins with a vowel, so that a phrase like beaux arts [https://bit.ly/4iH3h2Z] sounds like \boh zahr\. We can thank French for the origin of the term liaison, as well. It comes from Middle French lier, meaning “to bind or tie.” Other English senses of liaison apply it to all kinds of bonds—from binding and thickening agents used in cooking (as in “a butter and flour liaison”), to people who work to connect different groups, to the kind of secret relationship sometimes entered into by two people who are romantically attracted to one another.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 21, 2025 is: bodacious • \boh-DAY-shuss\  • adjective Bodacious is used as an informal synonym of remarkable [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/remarkable] and noteworthy [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noteworthy], as well as sexy [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sexy] and voluptuous [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voluptuous]. In some dialects of the Southern and Midland US, bodacious is used by its oldest meaning: "outright [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/outright], unmistakable [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unmistakable]." // The bodacious decor of the boutique hotel is intended to appeal to the young and the hip. See the entry > [http://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bodacious] Examples: "There’s no need to lug in a 6-foot specimen tree to add bodacious botanicals into your home, because even the smallest planters can make a big impact when intentionally pairing striking foliage with a unique vessel." — Kristin Guy, Sunset Magazine, 5 Mar. 2024 Did you know? Some of our readers may know bodacious as a word that figured prominently in the lingo of the 1989 film Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Others may recall the term's frequent use in the long-running "Snuffy Smith" comic strip. Neither the creators of the comic strip nor the movie can claim to have coined bodacious, which began appearing in print in the mid-1800s, but both surely contributed to its popularity. The exact origin of the word is uncertain, but it is most likely a blend of bold [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bold] and audacious [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/audacious], and it may be linked to boldacious [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boldacious], a now-rare British dialect term meaning "brazen" or "impudent."