Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 22, 2026 is:

disheveled • \dih-SHEV-uld\  • adjective

A disheveled person or thing is not neat or tidy.

// His wrinkled suit gave him a disheveled appearance.

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Examples:

“My mother is waking up. ... She dresses quickly. Her oblong, Scots-Irish face may be too idiosyncratic for the screen anyway, the hollow cheekbones and sharp eyes, the straw-blond hair worn in a low-slung and slightly disheveled beehive.” — Matthew Specktor, The Golden Hour: A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood, 2025

Did you know?

These days, the adjective disheveled is used to describe almost anything or anyone marked by disorder or disarray. Rumpled clothes, for example, often contribute to a disheveled appearance, as in Colson Whitehead's novel Crook Manifesto, when the comedian Roscoe Pope walks onstage “disheveled, in wrinkled green corduroy pants.” Apartments, desks, bedsheets, you name it—all can be disheveled when not at their neatest and tidiest. Hair, however, is the most common noun to which disheveled is applied (along with hairdo terms like bun and beard), a fact that makes etymological sense. Disheveled comes from the Middle English adjective discheveled, meaning “bareheaded” or “with disordered hair.” That word is a partial translation of the Anglo-French word deschevelé, a combination of the prefix des- (“dis-“) and chevoil, meaning “hair.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 21, 2026 is:

schmooze • \SHMOOZ\  • verb

To schmooze is to warmly chat with someone often in order to gain favor, business, or connections.

// The event provides an opportunity for local business owners to network and schmooze.

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Examples:

"After wrapping up her speech filled with anecdotes and policy promises, the candidate schmoozed with the crowd, seemingly determined to shake every hand before her staff ushered her back to the bus." — Mike Kropf, The News Virginian (Waynesboro, Virginia), 4 Sept. 2025

Did you know?

Schmooze (also spelled shmooze) schlepped into English from the Yiddish schmues, meaning "talk," which itself is from the Hebrew shěmu'ōth, meaning "news" or "rumor." Although originally used to indicate simply talking in an informal and warm manner, the word now commonly suggests conversation for the purpose of gaining favor, business, or connections. Schmooze is one of a number of English schm- words originating from Yiddish; other classics include schmaltz (referring to rendered animal fat or excessively sentimental music or art), schmuck (a slang word for "jerk"), schmutz ("a filthy or soiling substance"), and schmear ("a layer of cream cheese").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 20, 2026 is:

quiddity • \KWID-uh-tee\  • noun

Quiddity refers to the essence of a thing—that is, whatever makes something the type of thing that it is. Quiddity can also refer to a small and usually trivial complaint or criticism, or to a quirk or eccentricity in someone's behavior.

// The novelist's genius was her unparalleled ability to capture the quiddity of the Maine seacoast in simple prose.

// He portrayed the character's quirks and quiddities with tender playfulness.

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Examples:

“When I was gathering my odes into a book—or rather, piling up my effusions in prose and verse and trying to work out which ones were odes and which weren't—my friend Carlo gave me a magical concept. He called it ‘the odeness.' It's the essential quality, quiddity, … uniqueness of whatever you're trying to write about. It's what your ode is attempting to first identify and then celebrate. It's the odeness of your ode.” — James Parker, The Atlantic, 30 Sept. 2025

Did you know?

When it comes to synonyms of quiddity, the Q's have it. Consider quintessence, a synonym of the “essence of a thing” meaning of quiddity, and quibble, a synonym of the “trifling point” use. And let's not forget about quirk: like quiddity, quirk can refer to a person's eccentricities. Of course, quiddity also comes from a “Q” word, the Latin pronoun quis, which is one of two Latin words for “who” (the other is qui). Quid, the neuter form of quis, led to the Medieval Latin quidditas, which means “essence,” a term that was essential to the development of the English word quiddity.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 19, 2026 is:

ephemeral • \ih-FEM-uh-rul\  • adjective

Something described as ephemeral lasts only for a very short time.

// The performance was not recorded, a fact that made its ephemeral nature all the more poignant.

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Examples:

"Like most garden moments, fresh holiday wreaths are ephemeral. Having accomplished their purpose of seeing us through the darkest days of winter, removing this traditional symbol of the wheeling seasons is a way to recognize the birth of a new year and celebrate the returning light." — Lorene Edwards Forkner, The Seattle Times, 16 Nov. 2025

Did you know?

In its aquatic immature stages, the mayfly (order Ephemeroptera) has all the time in the world—or not quite: among the approximately 2,500 species of mayflies, some have as much as two years, but a year is more common. But in its adult phase, the typical mayfly hatches, takes wing for the first time, mates, and dies within the span of a few short hours. This briefest of heydays makes the insect a potent symbol of life's ephemeral nature. When ephemeral (from the Greek word ephēmeros, meaning "lasting a day") first appeared in print in English in the late 16th century, it was a scientific term applied to short-term fevers, and later, to organisms (such as insects and flowers) with very short life spans. Soon after that, it acquired an extended sense describing anything fleeting and short-lived, as in "ephemeral pleasures."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 18, 2026 is:

elicit • \ih-LISS-it\  • verb

Elicit is a formal word meaning “to get (a response, information, etc.) from someone.”

// The announcement of the final amount raised by the charity walk elicited cheers from the crowd.

// The teacher's question elicited no response.

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Examples:

“By the end of the ceremony, the attendees knew where each soon-to-be graduate would be studying next. The students lined up and stormed the stage, screaming their names and their postsecondary destinations while hoisting flags from the institutions in the air. ... Each proud declaration elicited raucous clapping and hooting from the crowd.” — Elizabeth Hernandez, The Denver Post, 15 May 2025

Did you know?

Say them fast—or even slow—in isolation, and no one will know which one you mean: elicit and illicit both rhyme with the likes of explicit and complicit. But beyond being auditorily indistinguishable, they are used very differently. Illicit is an adjective applied to no-nos. It's used to describe things people aren't supposed to do. Something illicit is not permitted especially because it is illegal. Elicit, on the other hand, is a verb most often used to talk about calling forth or drawing out a response or reaction from someone, as in “her onstage antics elicited roars of laughter from the audience.” The Latin ancestors of this pair are easy to confuse too. Elicit comes from elicitus, illicit from illicitus. But going back just a little further, we find that elicit traces back beyond elicitus to lacere, meaning “to allure,” while illicitus comes ultimately from licēre, meaning “to be permitted.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 17, 2026 is:

notorious • \noh-TOR-ee-us\  • adjective

Notorious describes people and things that are well-known or famous, especially for something bad or unfavorable.

// Their city is notorious for its extremely hot and humid summers.

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Examples:

“Given Long Island's cul-de-sac geography and notorious traffic, proposed bridges and tunnels to Connecticut are bound to get attention on the Island.” — Peter Gill, Newsday, 8 Dec. 2025

Did you know?

For those who don't give a fig about a bad reputation, being notorious for unpopular behavior is no biggie. (Being notorious for topping the Billboard charts? Now that's a Biggie.) Although notorious (which comes from Latin noscere, “to come to know”) can be a synonym of famous, it's more often a synonym of infamous, having long ago developed the additional implication of someone or something disreputable. The Book of Common Prayer of 1549 includes one of the first known uses of the unfavorable meaning in print, referring to “notorious synners.” You know what they say: more notorious synners, more problems.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 16, 2026 is:

vendetta • \ven-DET-uh\  • noun

Vendetta refers to an active and mutual hatred between two families or groups, also known as a blood feud. It can also refer to an often prolonged series of retaliatory, vengeful, or hostile acts, or to a commitment to carrying out such acts.

// The student insisted that the principal had a personal vendetta against her.

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Examples:

"Rita publicly refused a vendetta at his funeral. She wouldn't ask her sons to avenge him, even though that wasn't just normal for the time, it was expected." — Rita Halász, Deep Breath: A Novel (translated by Kris Herbert), 2025

Did you know?

English speakers borrowed vendetta, spelling and all, from Italian in the 19th century; literally meaning "revenge," vendetta first referred specifically to Italian and especially Corsican family- or clan-based feuds. It later extended in meaning to cover the acts that tend to feature in such feuds, and later still expanded further to refer to a commitment to carrying out such acts. Vendetta ultimately traces to the Latin verb vindicta, meaning "revenge" or "vindication." That Latin word is also in the family tree of other English terms related to getting even, including avenge, revenge, vengeance, vindicate, and vindictive.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 15, 2026 is:

cloying • \KLOY-ing\  • adjective

Cloying is used disapprovingly to describe something that is too sweet, pleasant, or sentimental.

// She finds most romantic comedies cloying and predictable.

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Examples:

“Images of her came to me often, as did snatches of songs in her repertoire, which she sang to me as lullabies. ... What I couldn't quite summon, despite what I thought of as my keen smell memory, was her fragrance. As a kid, I had never liked it. Bellodgia was heavy, spicy, and floral; when my mother would lean over me to comb my hair ... the cloying rose and carnation combined with her tugging on my scalp always threatened to give me a headache. Still ... I missed that fragrance now.” — Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 10 July 2025

Did you know?

The history of cloying isn't sweet—it's tough as nails. Cloying comes from the verb cloy, which in Middle English meant “to hinder or seriously injure”; its source is an Anglo-French word meaning “to prick (a horse) with a nail in shoeing.” English cloy too carried this farriery meaning (a farrier being a person who shoes horses) in the early 16th century, but it also had a general sense relating to clogging and stuffing, and in particular to overloading with especially sweet or rich food. From there quickly arose meanings of cloy still in use today: “to supply with an unwanted or distasteful excess usually of something originally pleasing” and “to be or become insipid or distasteful usually through an excess of an originally pleasurable quality (such as sweetness).” The adjective cloying, which describes things that are too sweet, pleasant, or sentimental, was doing the job it does today by the end of the 16th century.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 14, 2026 is:

delegate • \DEL-uh-gayt\  • verb

To delegate something (such as control, responsibility, authority, or a job or duty) is to trust someone else with it.

// Those tasks can be delegated to someone else.

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Examples:

“In practice, principals shuttle back and forth, sometimes multiple times a day, or divide their schedule between mornings and afternoons, or alternate full days at each school. When they're off-site, they must formally delegate authority, but parents and teachers say it's not always clear who holds decision-making power.” — Isabel Teotonio, The Toronto Star, 1 Dec. 2025

Did you know?

To delegate is to literally or figuratively send someone else in your place, an idea that is reflected in the word's origin: it is a descendant of the Latin word lēgāre, meaning “to send as an envoy” (a messenger or representative). The noun delegate, which refers to a person who is chosen or elected to vote or act for others, arrived in English in the 14th century, while the verb didn't make its entrée till the early 16th century. (Note that the verb rhymes with relegate while the noun rhymes with delicate.) Some distant cousins of the word delegate that also trace back to lēgāre include legacy, colleague, relegate, and legate, “an official representative sent to a foreign country.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 13, 2026 is:

umbrage • \UM-brij\  • noun

Umbrage refers to a feeling of being offended by what someone has said or done. It is often used in the phrase “take umbrage.”

// Some listeners took umbrage at the podcaster's remarks about the event.

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Examples:

“The one item on offer was considered to be so good that the chef took umbrage at being asked for mustard.” — The Irish Times, 31 Oct. 2025

Did you know?

Umbrage is a word born in the shadows. Its ultimate source (and that of umbrella) is Latin umbra, meaning “shade, shadow,” and when it was first used in the 15th century it referred to exactly that. But figurative use followed relatively quickly. Shakespeare wrote of Hamlet that “his semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more,” and by the 17th century this meaning of “vague suggestion; hint,” had been joined by other uses, including the “feeling of resentment or offense” heard today in such sentences as “many took umbrage at the speaker's tasteless jokes.” The word's early literal use is not often encountered, though it does live on in literature: for example, in her 1849 novel, Charlotte Brontë describes how the titular Shirley would relax “at the foot of some tree of friendly umbrage.”