noun | a reference source containing words alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, and etymologies
Springfield, MA
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‘Booty’ and ‘butt’ are synonyms.
‘Call’ and ‘dial’ are synonyms.
But, a ‘booty call’ and a ‘butt dial’ are VERY different things.
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We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.
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The ‘im’ means “not” so ‘impossible’ means “not possible.”
But we’ll let it slide because we know you took your life from negative to positive.
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Wakes up.
Checks Twitter.
.
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.
Uh...
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📈 Lookups fo...
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Regrets checking Twitter.
Goes back to bed.
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'Stand back': to take a few steps backwards
'Stand by': to be or to get ready to act
#Debates2020
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ALT screenshot of a tweet saying “It took me 19 years to figure out NEWS stands for "notable events, weather, and sports" 🤔” and the Merriam-Webster Twitter account responding “No”
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The word ‘stan’ comes from the Eminem song "Stan" which is about one of his obsessed fans.
What if Eminem named the fan ‘Dennis’?
We could be saying, “I dennis Beyonce.”
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'pore over' 🔍"to read or study very carefully"
'pour over' ☕️"to make expensive coffee"
'comb over' 💇♂️"to comb hair from the side of the head to cover the bald spot"
merriam-webster.com/dictiona…
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People who subscribe to Merriam-Webster Red™ will get exclusive access to the real definitions.
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enshittification | noun | when a digital platform is made worse for users, in order to increase profits
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'Vacations.'
The word is 'vacations.'
ALT FAST COMPANY Article: While retirement typically occurs, after completing a career and saving and investing for it, a new trend is emerging among Gen Z career professionals called "micro-retirement." Micro- retirements involve taking a one to two- week break from work every 12 to 18 months. Gen Z is using micro-retirement to avoid burnout, find greater fulfillment in their work, and enhance their overall well-being. However, it's not just Gen-Z:
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The word 'doctor' comes from the Latin word for "teacher." merriam-webster.com/words-at…
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Not to be THAT dictionary, but…
It’s ‘per se,’ not ‘per say.’
It’s ‘dog-eat-dog world,’ not ‘doggy-dog world.’
It’s ‘hunger pangs,’ not ‘hunger pains.’
It’s ‘one and the same,’ not ‘one in the same.’
It's 'buck naked,' not 'butt naked.'
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For those looking up punctuation early on a Friday morning:
A hyphen is a mark - used to divide or to compound words.
An apostrophe is a mark ' used to indicate the omission of letters or figures.
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🏥 heal (to become healthy again)
😈 heel (a contemptible person)
🙋♂️ he'll (he will)
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📈'Volunteer' means “someone who does something without being forced to do it.” merriam-webster.com/news-tre…
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📈A fact is a piece of information presented as having objective reality. merriam-webster.com/news-tre…
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-“‘Helicopter’ does not come from ‘heli’ and ‘copter,’ but from ‘helico’ (from Greek ‘helix’ meaning “spiral”) plus ‘pter’ (from Greek ‘pteron’ meaning “wing”).”
-“Like in ‘pterodactyl’?”
-“Girl, exactly.”
Shanna Storrie
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The nonbinary pronoun 'they' has been added to the dictionary.
merriam-webster.com/dictiona…
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'Transcript': 🎙 a typed copy of dictated or recorded material
'Memorandum': 📝 an informal report or message
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ONE OF THE DEFINITIONS OF 'LITERALLY' IS "IN EFFECT, VIRTUALLY—USED IN AN EXAGGERATED WAY TO EMPHASIZE A STATEMENT OR DESCRIPTION." SOME PEOPLE GET MAD IF YOU USE IT THIS WAY BECAUSE IT ISN'T THE WORD'S PRIMARY MEANING, BUT THIS SENSE OF 'LITERALLY' HAS BEEN USED FOR 250 YEARS SO
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As a gift to our friends (you) in a time of crisis, we’ll be keeping a thread here of beautiful, obscure, and often quite useless words.
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The rumors are NOT true.
Drake is not suing us because Kendrick used English words in "Not Like Us."
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📈'Jamais vu' is our top search today after the @BTS_twt tracklist reveal. It refers to the illusion that the familiar is being encountered for the first time. #BTS merriam-webster.com/medical/…
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People are talking about ‘key bumps,’ and so we have a duty to tell you some things about this.
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📈 'Epiphany': an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure
cc @BTS_twt #Epiphany
merriam-webster.com/dictiona…
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*whispers into the void* In contemporary use, fact is understood to refer to something with actual existence. merriam-webster.com/news-tre…
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Good morning! The #WordOfTheDay is...not 'unpresidented'. We don't enter that word. That's a new one.
merriam-webster.com/dictiona…
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This "recently" happened in 1934.
You'll be fine.
It has come to my attention that @MerriamWebster recently included “irregardless” as a word.
You think you know a dictionary and then this happens.
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Happy #DictionaryDay! In honor of birthday boy Noah Webster, we’re going to take on a probably large, probably ill-advised endeavor.
So.
For every one (1) like of this post, we’ll give you one (1) obscure, unusual, or just fairly interesting word.
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"IRREGARDLESS" HAS BEEN AROUND SINCE 1795. ITS INCLUSION IN THE DICTIONARY IS NOT A SIGN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FALLING TO PIECES, OR PROOF OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM FAILING, NOR IS IT THE WORK OF CURSED MILLENNIALS. IT JUST MEANS A LOT OF PEOPLE USE IT TO MEAN "REGARDLESS."
ALT Bad Bunny talking intensely to Kendall Jenner at a Lakers playoff game.
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'Suborn'
- specifically: to induce to commit perjury
- broadly: to induce secretly to do an unlawful thing
merriam-webster.com/words-at…
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Dear @MTV
We humbly nominate ‘euphoria’ by @kendricklamar for a Video Music Award for “Best Video Ever.”
ALT screenshot of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘euphoria’ which is a screenshot of the definition of ‘euphoria’ from www.m-w.com
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To address extreme levels of language enthusiasm, we've applied the following temporary limits:
-Writers, Lyricists, and other Professional Wordsmiths: 6000 definition lookups/day
-Thoughtful Readers and Crossword Puzzlers: 600/day
-Everyday English Speakers: 300/day
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📈'Scot-free': completely free from obligation, harm, or penalty
'Scott Free': some guy, probably
merriam-webster.com/news-tre…
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Not to add to the discourse, but…
It’s ‘toe the line,’ not ‘tow the line.’
It’s ‘free rein,’ and not ‘free reign.’
It’s ‘eke out,’ not ‘eek out.’
It’s ‘sleight of hand,’ not ‘slight of hand.’
It's ‘Anchors aweigh,’ and not ‘Anchor's away!’
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It has been brought to our attention that we've been giving everyone the real definitions since 1828.
Merriam-Webster Red™ has been discontinued.
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'Moot' (n) : ⚖️ a deliberative assembly primarily for the administration of justice; especially : one held by the freemen of an Anglo-Saxon community
'Moat' (n) : 🐊 a deep wide ditch around the walls of a castle or fort that is usually filled with water
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'Fascism' is still our #1 lookup.
# of lookups = how we choose our Word of the Year.
There's still time to look something else up.
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'Canceled' and 'cancelled' are both standard variants.
merriam-webster.com/dictiona…
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📈Tonight’s top searches, in order: racism, socialism, fascism, concentration camp, xenophobia, bigot
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The word ‘they’
- was looked up 313% more this year than last.
- had a new sense added in September.
- is increasingly common in both public and personal communication.
‘They’ is our 2019 #WordOfTheYear.
merriam-webster.com/words-at…
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“I’ll be 10 min late sorry!!!”
-ashamed
-fragile
-unreliable
“A thousand apologies. The relentless slog of time has overtaken my faculties.”
-powerful
-commanding
-honest
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People keep
1) saying they don't know what 'genderqueer' means
then
2) asking why we added it to the dictionary
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Here are some of our favorite collective names for animals:
a murder of crows
a tuxedo of penguins
a bask of crocodiles
a destruction of cats
a tower of giraffes
a parliament of owls
a cackle of hyenas
a smack of jellyfish
an ambush of tigers
a wisdom of wombats
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Unfortunately/fortunately, if a word is used with regularity
- by a certain number of people
- for a certain length of time
- to mean a certain and specific thing
it becomes a word, whether we like it or not.
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A 'mumpsimus' is a stubborn person who insists on making an error in spite of being shown that it is wrong. merriam-webster.com/words-at…
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Non-native English Speakers, what’s a word from your language that you think is perfect that doesn’t have an English equivalent?
Take us to church.
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*crab-walked
ALT A CNN news notification : The convicted killer crab walked between two walls and pushed through the newly installed razor wire to break out of prison, authorities say
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It is permissible in English for a preposition to be what you end a sentence with.
The idea that it should be avoided came from writers who were trying to align the language with Latin, but there is no reason to suggest ending a sentence with a preposition is wrong.
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55 Nouns
55 Verbs
55 Adjectives
55 Prepositions
55 Adverbs
100 Conjunctions
100 Gerunds
100 Abbreviations
100 Interjections
100 Onomatopoeias
55 Determiners
55 Acronyms
55 Place Names
55 Participles
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OK, OK.
Here.
Bye.
merriam-webster.com/dictiona…
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Not yet but hopefully soon 🤞
ALT A screenshot from www.MerriamWebster.com saying the below word isn't in the dictionary "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHRHRGRGRGRRRGURBHJBEORWPSOJWPJORGWOIRGWSGODEWP GOHEPW09GJEDPOKSD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!0924QU8T63095JRGHWPE09UJ0PWHRGW"
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📈'Feminism' is defined as "the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities." merriam-webster.com/news-tre…
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Okay a few people got it.
📈'Impeach' is up 3600%
merriam-webster.com/news-tre…
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We can confirm that Shohei Ohtani is not in the Merriam-Webster Citation Archives.
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Some words go together like jelly and peanut butter… wait, that sounds super weird.
A pair of words that is used in a fixed order in an idiomatic expression is called an ‘irreversible binomial.’
‘Peanut butter and jelly’ is an example of an irreversible binomial.
🧵⬇️
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We once made a dictionary with a built-in stand.
ALT Rare edition of 7th Collegiate Dictionary with built-in stand, 1969.
ALT Rare edition of 7th Collegiate Dictionary with built-in stand, 1969.
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📈We're seeing a 1500% spike on 'cave' this evening.
merriam-webster.com/news-tre…
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DEFCON refers to any one of five levels of readiness used by the U.S. military. DEFCON 5 is used for the lowest perceived threat, and DEFCON 1 for the highest. The word is a blend of 'defense' & 'condition.'
We don't know what 'death con' means, with or without the number 3.
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'Brooding' (as in "sullenly thoughtful or serious") has a literal original meaning of "sitting on eggs." merriam-webster.com/words-at…
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2017 saw both a sustained rise in 'feminism' lookups and a number of event-driven spikes.
'Feminism' is our #WordOfTheYear.
merriam-webster.com/words-at…
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Also! We just realized that we have the same initials: 'MW.'
(Merriam-Webster & Mr. Worldwide)
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It is perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with ‘and.’
And it’s equally acceptable to begin a sentence with ‘but’ or ‘or.’
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"We will call the 12th month of the year 'December'... which means 'tenth month.'"
ALT Screenshot of SNL's George Washington sketch from 10/28 with Nate Bargatze
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Today in Spellcheck Can't Save You:
'Smocking' is a type of embroidery made of many small folds sewn into place. merriam-webster.com/dictiona…
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Why are they called "eggplants"? Because they used to look like this.
We hope this doesn't mess up your emoji game.
ALT An earlier version of an eggplant that looks like white eggs
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📈 Kim Jong Un calls Trump a mentally deranged U.S. dotard. Searches for 'dotard' are high as a kite. merriam-webster.com/dictiona…
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