Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 15, 2025 is:

impervious • \im-PER-vee-us\  • adjective

Impervious describes that which does not allow something (such as water or light) to enter or pass through. It is also used formally to mean “not bothered or affected by something.” Both senses of impervious are usually used with to.

// The material is impervious to water.

// The mayor seems impervious to criticism.

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Examples:

“All of this ups the already sky-high stakes for ‘Superman,' which relaunches the DC Universe under the direction of Gunn and Peter Safran. The film is the studio's best hope at fielding a billion-dollar blockbuster in 2025, but even the Man of Steel isn't impervious to box office Kryptonite.” — Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 17 Jan. 2025

Did you know?

Finding your way through some words' etymologies can lead to surprising discoveries of origins that seemingly have little to do with their modern-day meanings. Impervious, which entered English in the early 1600s, is not one of those words—its history is entirely straightforward. The Latin ancestor of impervious is impervius, which adds the prefix im-, meaning “not,” to pervius, meaning “passable or penetrable.” Pervius in turn comes from per, meaning “through,” and via, meaning “way.” Impervious, it follows, describes things that don't allow a way through something, whether literally (as in “asphalt, concrete, and other surfaces that are impervious to rain”) or figuratively (as in “impervious to criticism/pressure”). The opposite of impervious, pervious, entered English at around the same time, but it is much less common.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 14, 2025 is:

scuttlebutt • \SKUTT-ul-butt\  • noun

Scuttlebutt refers to rumor or gossip—in other words, talk or stories about someone or something that may not be true.

// According to the scuttlebutt in the financial markets, the company will be downsizing soon.

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Examples:

“If highly social otters want the local scuttlebutt, so to speak, they can pick up information through the scents fellow otters leave behind at communal latrines that a group of otters will create and use.” — Lisa Meyers McClintick, The Minnesota Star Tribune, 2 Mar. 2025

Did you know?

When office workers catch up on the latest scuttlebutt around the water cooler, they are continuing a long-standing tradition that probably also occurred on sailing ships of yore. Back in the early 1800s, scuttlebutt (an alteration of scuttled butt) referred to a cask containing a ship's daily supply of fresh water (scuttle means “to cut a hole through the bottom,” and butt means “cask”); that name was later applied to a drinking fountain on a ship or at a naval installation. In time, the term for the water source was also applied to the gossip and rumors disseminated around it, and the latest chatter has been called “scuttlebutt” ever since.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 13, 2025 is:

apotropaic • \ap-uh-troh-PAY-ik\  • adjective

Something described as apotropaic is designed or intended to avert evil.

// The etchings are believed to be associated with ancient apotropaic rituals.

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Examples:

“Scholars ... say witches were believed to be attracted to the scent of a human shoe and, having entered one, found themselves trapped. Footwear is one of a mindboggling array of items used in apotropaic magic, designed to turn away harm or evil influence.” — Pete Pheasant, The Derby (England) Telegraph, 13 Mar. 2025

Did you know?

Apotropaic is a charming word, and not just because of its cadence. You see, this term is a literal descriptor for things believed to protect against evil. Apotropaic motifs can be found throughout history, from carvings of Greek Gorgons to charms worn to repel the evil eye. The word apotropaic comes from the Greek verb apotrépein, meaning “to turn away from, avert,” combining apo- (“away”) with trépein (“to turn”). The magic of apo- doesn't end there: its influence is evident in many English words, including apology, apostrophe, apostle, and apocalypse.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 12, 2025 is:

fester • \FESS-ter\  • verb

Something that festers becomes worse as time passes. Fester can also mean, in the context of wounds, sores, etc., “to become painful and infected.”

// We should deal with these problems now instead of allowing them to fester.

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Examples:

“Minor plumbing leaks left to fester have snowballed into water seeping down walls and out of light fixtures ...” — Devyani Chhetri, The Dallas Morning News, 11 Mar. 2025

Did you know?

Both noun and verb forms of the English word fester come from the Latin noun fistula, meaning “pipe” or, less pleasantly, “fistulous ulcer.” Accordingly, the noun fester refers to a sore that forms or discharges pus, while the oldest sense of the verb fester means “to generate pus.” A boil, for example, is a festering infection of a hair follicle. Over time, the verb—as many words do—picked up a figurative sense, and fester began to be used not only for the worsening of a wound but for a worsening state, situation, etc.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 11, 2025 is:

darling • \DAHR-ling\  • noun

Darling can refer to a dearly loved person or to someone who is liked very much by a person or group. It can also mean “a kind and helpful person” as in, “Be a darling and carry this inside for me, would you?”

// Our baby grandchild is just the sweetest little darling.

// The actor has become a darling of the entertainment industry in both film and music.

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Examples:

“Rocking a BAPE hoodie and a slight nervousness, Jorjiana performed a freestyle and her most popular song, ‘ILBB2.' And then boom: There's no such thing as an overnight success, but it did seem as if Jorjiana was a social media darling by the next day.” — Damien Scott, Billboard, 20 Feb. 2025

Did you know?

The opening lines of the rock band Wilco's song “My Darling,” sung from the perspective of a parent calming their sleepless child, demonstrate a very common use of the word darling: “Go back to sleep now, my darling / And I'll keep all the bad dreams away.” Darling is an ancient word, traceable all the way back to the Old English noun dēorling, which was formed by attaching the suffix -ling to the adjective dēore, the ancestor of dear, which describes that which is regarded very affectionately or fondly, is highly valued or esteemed, or is beloved. Darling, as in “my darling,” is often used as a term of endearment, whether for a child or a sweetheart, but it can also be used as a synonym of the noun favorite, as in “the word darling has proven itself a darling of songwriters for many centuries.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 10, 2025 is:

uncanny • \un-KAN-ee\  • adjective

Uncanny is typically used to describe something that is strange or unusual in a way that is surprising or difficult to understand. It can also describe something that seems to have a supernatural character or origin.

// The child has an uncanny ability to recognize streets and locations she's seen only once or twice before.

// The lights suddenly flickered, and we were both overcome with an eerie, uncanny feeling.

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Examples:

"... as Nelson Moultrie walked through the cemetery and observed trees growing in ways that resemble the shapes of people, like one that bore an uncanny resemblance to a pair of legs, she said she's already felt the presence of the people buried there." — Laura Liebman, The Post & Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), 21 Mar. 2025

Did you know?

Uncanny describes that which unsettles us, such as disquieting observations, or mysterious situations and circumstances. Strip the word of its prefix, though, and you're left with canny, a word that can be used as a synonym for clever and prudent. While canny and uncanny don't appear to be antonyms, they both come from an early Scots word canny meaning "free from risk; wise, prudent, cautious." And in Scots, canny has for centuries had a secondary meaning more similar to that of its mysterious cousin: the Oxford English Dictionary defines a sense of the word used chiefly in negative constructions (e.g., “not canny”) to describe what is not safe to be involved with, or more broadly, what is not in accordance with what is right or natural, as in "the idea is not canny." Rather uncanny.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 9, 2025 is:

gloss • \GLAHSS\  • verb

To gloss a word or phrase is to provide its meaning, or in other words, to explain or define it.

// Many unfamiliar terms are glossed in the book's introduction.

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Examples:

“It is revealing that early dictionaries regularly defined equality as ‘conformity,' or glossed the word, like Noah Webster did in 1806, as ‘likeness, evenness, uniformity.'” — Darrin M. McMahon, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1 Apr. 2024

Did you know?

If you're the type of word nerd who finds poring over book glossaries to be the bee's knees, we know you'll get a buzz from this gloss of the verb gloss. To gloss something, such as a word or phrase, is to explain or define it. The noun gloss, it follows, refers to (among other things) a brief explanation of a word or expression. And a glossary of course is a collection of textual glosses, or of specialized terms, with their meanings. Both forms of gloss, as well as the word glossary, trace back to the Greek noun glôssa, meaning “tongue,” “language,” or “obscure word requiring explanation.” Another descendent of glôssa, the English noun glossa, refers not to a bee's knees but to a bee's tongue, or to the tongue of another insect.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 8, 2025 is:

modicum • \MAH-dih-kum\  • noun

Modicum is a formal word that means “a small amount.” It is almost always used with of.

// The band enjoyed a modicum of success in the early 2010s before becoming an international sensation.

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Examples:

“Imagine, for example, that the gods decided to bestow upon Sisyphus a modicum of mercy. The rock, the hill, the never-ending, pointless labor all remained nonnegotiable as far as the gods were concerned, but the mercy of the gods was to change Sisyphus's attitude to these things. … He is never happier than when rolling large boulders up steep hills, and the gods have offered him the eternal fulfillment of this strange desire.” — Mark Rowlands, The Word of Dog: What Our Canine Companions Can Teach Us About Living a Good Life, 2024

Did you know?

It wouldn't be wrong to say that the English language has more than a modicum of words referring to a small amount of something—it has oodles, from smidgen to soupçon. But while modicum can be applied to countable or physical things (like words or salt) it is almost always applied instead to abstract concepts like respect, success, control, hope, dignity, or privacy. Modicum traces back to the Latin noun modus, meaning “measure,” which just so happens to be the ancestor of more than a modicum of English words, from moderate and modify to mold and commode.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2025 is:

bumptious • \BUMP-shus\  • adjective

Bumptious describes people who are rudely and often noisily confident or over-assertive. It can also be applied to actions or behaviors that show this same attitude.

// Our host apologized for the bumptious party guest who caused a scene before being asked to leave.

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Examples:

"She comes across as a bumptious, irritating ten-year-old who believes that her main vice, her steam-roller self-confidence, is a virtue." — Lloyd Evans, The Spectator (London), 17 Aug. 2024

Did you know?

While evidence dates bumptious to the beginning of the 19th century, the word was uncommon enough decades later that Edward Bulwer-Lytton included the following in his 1850 My Novel: "'She holds her head higher, I think,' said the landlord, smiling. 'She was always—not exactly proud like, but what I calls Bumptious.' 'I never heard that word before,' said the parson, laying down his knife and fork. 'Bumptious indeed, though I believe it is not in the dictionary, has crept into familiar parlance, especially amongst young folks at school and college.'" The word is, of course, now in "the dictionary"; ours notes that it comes from the noun bump and the suffix -tious, echoing other disapproving modifiers including captious ("fault-finding") and fractious ("troublemaking").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 6, 2025 is:

exculpate • \EK-skull-payt\  • verb

To exculpate someone is to prove that they are not guilty of doing something wrong.

// The editorial expresses confidence that the evidence will exculpate the accused.

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Examples:

“Research shows that social-media use is associated with greater narcissism (as well as depression and anxiety).... But it is too easy to exculpate ourselves as a society by pointing to technology and trends we can scarcely control, and young adults may not be in a position to address their avoidant behavior. The rest of us can help.” — Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic, 1 June 2023

Did you know?

There's no need to say “my bad” if you're unfamiliar with exculpate; while the word is far from rare, it is most often encountered in formal writing in reference to the clearing of someone of alleged fault or guilt, as in “they were exculpated of any wrongdoing.” You may be more familiar with a pair of terms that, like exculpate, come from the Latin noun culpa, meaning “blame” or “guilt.” One is the adjective culpable, used to describe someone deserving of condemnation or blame. The other is the Latin phrase mea culpa, which translates directly as “through my fault” and refers to an acknowledgement of personal fault or error that is more formal than, well, “my bad.”