Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 11, 2026 is:





xeric • \ZEER-ik\ • adjective

Xeric means "characterized by, relating to, or requiring only a small amount of moisture."

// She is a botanist who primarily studies xeric plants.

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Examples:

"Thoughtfully designed xeric, or low-water, landscapes can be dynamic, layered and full of color. Native plants and those adapted to the Intermountain West ... provide habitat and food for pollinators and birds while needing a fraction of the water that bluegrass demands." — Pula Davis and Scott Curry, The Colorado Springs Gazette, 16 May 2026





Did you know?

Few English words begin with the letter X, but of those that do, a number come from the Greek xēros, meaning "dry." Around the turn of the 20th century, botanists were using the terms xerophyte and xerophytic for plants that were well adapted to survive without much water. But when seeking a more generic word that included both animals and plants, they came up, ahem, dry. In a 1926 issue of Ecology, specialists proposed using xeric as a more generalized term for either flora or fauna. They further suggested that xerophytic, among other terms, "be entirely abandoned as useless and misleading." Not everyone liked the idea. In fact, the Ecological Society of America stated that xeric was "not desirable," preferring terms such as arid. Others declared that the word should refer only to habitats, not to organisms. Enough scientists used it anyway, however, that by the 1940s xeric was well documented in scientific literature.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 10, 2026 is:





effulgence • \ih-FULL-junss\ • noun

Effulgence means “radiant splendor” or “brilliance.”

// Guests oohed and aahed at the sudden effulgence of the pagoda, as the last of its hundreds of candles were finally lit.

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Examples:

“No one knows who suggested that the building be lit at night. But the obvious inspiration was Times Square, an area famous for its nighttime effulgence.” — Robert Sharoff, FastCompany.com, 7 July 2025





Did you know?

Need a shiny word to bust out at your next disco party, planetarium visit, or fireworks gathering? How about effulgence? It’s not a shiny “new” word, having made its English language debut in the 17th century, but it’s unusual and has a lovely Latin pedigree: the verb fulgēre, meaning “to shine.” Effulgence isn’t used for bog-standard brightness, however; it’s reserved for shininess that dazzles, inspires, leaves you gobsmacked—in other words, “radiant splendor.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 9, 2026 is:





tacit • \TASS-it\ • adjective

Tacit is a formal adjective used to describe something that is expressed or understood without being directly stated.

// As roommates, we had a tacit agreement that we would never pry into each other’s affairs.

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Examples:

“Where modern documentaries are slick productions filled with preconceived notions, embedded narratives, and tacit approval of their subjects, [Frederick] Wiseman’s work is slow, contemplative, and refreshingly slant-free.” — Kevin Slane, Boston.com, 24 Feb. 2026





Did you know?

In the first chapter of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, the narrator Mr. Lockwood recounts warily encountering three dogs. Although he was sure to sit still, he admits that “imagining they would scarcely understand tacit insults, I unfortunately indulged in winking and making faces at the trio” (one subsequently leapt onto his knees in fury). His tacit insults were, by the relevant definition of tacit, not expressed with words (instead he used facial expressions). Tacit can also mean “implied or indicated (as by an act or by silence) but not expressed,” as when a tacit agreement is understood without being directly stated, and tacit approval is silently granted. Tacit traces back to the Latin verb tacēre, meaning “to be silent,” which is also the ancestor of the English adjective taciturn, used to describe someone who tends to be quiet.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 8, 2026 is:





gambol • \GAM-bul\ • verb

Gambol means "to run or jump in a lively way." It is used as a synonym of frolic.

// There are few sights more charming than that of lambs gamboling about in a meadow in full flower.

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Examples:

"There's also charming footage of a couple gamboling in Central Park that might be some of the first scenes Warhol ever shot ... They're so lighthearted and playful, they're more in the spirit of his jaunty commercial drawings from the 1950s than of the deadpan Pop Art he was just then perfecting." — Blake Gopnik, The New York Times, 30 Jan. 2026





Did you know?

In Middle French, the noun gambade referred to the frisky spring of a jumping horse. In the early 1500s, its influence leapt into English twice, lending a playful bounce to both noun and verb forms of gambol. (The noun means "a skipping or leaping about in play.") Neither English word is restricted to horses, but rather can be used of any frolicsome creature. The more common of the two, the verb, suggests levity and spontaneity, and it tends to be used especially of the lively activity of children or animals engaged in active play.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 7, 2026 is:





perfunctory • \per-FUNK-tuh-ree\ • adjective

Perfunctory is a formal word used to describe something that is done without energy or enthusiasm because of habit or because it is expected.

// By the time my favorite band got to the last stop of the tour, their performance felt perfunctory.

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Examples:

“Even a perfunctory ending can’t take away from the film’s fiery commitment to bearing witness to misogyny’s bitter fruit. Harris’ vision as a first-time filmmaker is crystal clear, and Is God Is already feels timeless, like a parable that could have been written decades ago, and will be handily passed down as pointed social critique for decades to come.” — Aisha Harris, NPR, 15 May 2026





Did you know?

A perfunctory explanation of the origins of perfunctory would be this: it comes from Latin. But given our passion for language, we can’t resist giving you all the details. Borrowed in the late 16th century, the word is specifically from the Late Latin perfunctorius, meaning “done in a careless or superficial manner.” Perfunctorius traces back to a form of perfungi (“to accomplish, perform, get through with”) and ultimately comes from two Latin sources, per-, meaning “through,” and fungi, meaning “to perform.” Fungi is also a source of such words as function, defunct, and fungible, but not fungus; that word is also from Latin, but it is most likely a modification of the Greek word spongos, meaning “sponge.”