Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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





churlish • \CHUR-lish\ • adjective

Churlish is a formal word used to describe someone or something that is impolite or rude.

// I was shocked by the churlish remarks made by my opponent.

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Examples:

“… I think a Bob Dylan concert is fundamentally for Bob Dylan himself. You could call it churlish, but I think it’s self-assuredness, an elder’s clarity: The man has a message he needs to send, a message important enough that he’ll strip away anything that might distract from it. A Bob Dylan concert is not about what Bob Dylan’s audience wants to hear; it’s about what Bob Dylan wants to say even if he, you know, mumbles a bit.” —Jared Kaufman, The St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press, 7 July 2026





Did you know?

In Old English, the word ceorl referred to a free peasant—someone who was neither part of the nobility nor enslaved or in debt. In Anglo-Saxon England, which lasted roughly from the 5th to 11th centuries, ceorls had many rights that peasants of lower social status did not, and a few even rose to the rank of thane, becoming a member of a kind of local nobility. However, as most ceorls were driven into the class of unfree villeins serving feudal lords over the centuries, especially following the Norman Conquest, the connotation of the word ceorl—spelled cherl in Middle English and then finally churl—diminished as well, eventually coming to mean “a lowly peasant” and later “a rude, coarse person.” Similarly, churlish began in the form ceorlisc in Old English as a simple descriptor of someone with the rank of ceorl, but today it describes a boorish person, or their rude and insensitive behavior.

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





watershed • \WAW-ter-shed\ • noun

Watershed, used figuratively, refers to a crucial dividing point, line, or factor. Used literally, the word may refer to a ridge from which rivers drain on either side, or to the area of land that includes a particular river or lake and all the rivers, streams, etc. that flow into it.
: a crucial dividing point, line, or factor

// The protests marked a watershed in the nation’s history.

// The Continental Divide is the most well known watershed in the United States.

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Examples:

“For thousands of years, elk would have accounted for the second largest amount of meat in the diets of many eastern peoples, after the ubiquitous whitetail deer. Not only were the animals present in the East; for thousands of years they sustained human life and were integral to Indigenous material and spiritual culture. Although they were great and skilled hunters, Native Americans in the East rarely killed all of the elk or all of the deer in an entire watershed.” — Andrew Moore, Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness, 2026





Did you know?

Opinion on the literal geographic meaning of watershed is divided. On one side of the debate are those who think the word can only refer to a ridge of land separating rivers and streams flowing in one direction from those flowing in the opposite direction. That’s the term’s original meaning, one probably borrowed in the translation of the German Wasserscheide. On the other side of the argument are those who think watershed can also apply to the area through which such divided water flows. The latter sense is now far more common in America, but most speakers have apparently decided to leave the quarrel to hydrologists and geographers, choosing to limit their use of watershed to its figurative “turning point” sense.

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





facsimile • \fak-SIM-uh-lee\ • noun

A facsimile is an exact copy of something. The word facsimile is also still sometimes used to refer to a system of transmitting and reproducing graphic matter, such as printed text or photos, though the word fax is more common.

// The forged painting was an impressive facsimile of the original.

// The documents can be sent by facsimile to the number below.

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Examples:

“The installation could be read as an invocation of [Widline] Cadet’s mother’s Washington Heights apartment. … ‘For Haitian families,’ she says, ‘the living room is a sacred place.’ And yet, this is no mere facsimile of a Haitian living room. Like much of Cadet’s work, the installation, titled Altar #2, hovers between reality and fantasy.” — Elly Fishman, Vogue, 8 May 2026





Did you know?

The facsimile machine (or fax machine) has long been an office staple, but its name is much, much older. Fac simile is a Latin phrase meaning “make alike.” English speakers began using facsimile to mean “an exact copy” in the late 1600s. In this sense, a facsimile might be a handwritten or hand-drawn copy, or even a copy of a painting or statue. (Today, we also use the phrase “a reasonable facsimile” for a copy that is fairly close but not exact.) In the 1800s, people developed facsimile technology that could reproduce printed material via telegraph. Now, of course, we use telephone lines or wireless technology, and we usually call the resulting facsimile a fax.

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





quorum • \KWOR-um\ • noun

Quorum refers to the smallest number of people who must be present at a meeting in order for official decisions to be made. Broadly speaking, quorum may refer to any select group.

We need a quorum of fifteen staff members on the call in order to move forward with the items on the meeting agenda.

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Examples:

“In Jewish law, some prayers, such as those in the morning service, can only be said communally, in a quorum of 10 Jewish adults, called a minyan.” — Yonat Shimron, NPR, 16 July 2026





Did you know?

It takes two drama queens to tango, three Nervous Nellies to change a lightbulb, and 218 U.S. House Representatives to constitute a formal meeting. Each of these minimums—especially the last one—may be described as a quorum. This word, which can be pluralized as quorums or quora, comes directly from the Latin word quorum, which translates as “of whom.” At one time, this Latin quorum was used in the wording of the commissions granting power to justices of the peace in England. Later, when it became an English noun, quorum initially referred to the number of justices of the peace who had to be present in order to hear a case. That sense is now rare, and today quorum is used to refer to the minimum number of people required to be present at a meeting in order for official business to take place. It can also be used more broadly to mean simply “a select group.”

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





quorum • \KWOR-um\ • noun

Quorum refers to the smallest number of people who must be present at a meeting in order for official decisions to be made. Broadly speaking, quorum may refer to any select group.

// We need a quorum of fifteen staff members on the call in order to move forward with the items on the meeting agenda.

See the entry >





Examples:

“In Jewish law, some prayers, such as those in the morning service, can only be said communally, in a quorum of 10 Jewish adults, called a minyan.” — Yonat Shimron, NPR, 16 July 2026





Did you know?

It takes two drama queens to tango, three Nervous Nellies to change a lightbulb, and 218 U.S. House Representatives to constitute a formal meeting. Each of these minimums—especially the last one—may be described as a quorum. This word, which can be pluralized as quorums or quora, comes directly from the Latin word quorum, which translates as “of whom.” At one time, this Latin quorum was used in the wording of the commissions granting power to justices of the peace in England. Later, when it became an English noun, quorum initially referred to the number of justices of the peace who had to be present in order to hear a case. That sense is now rare, and today quorum is used to refer to the minimum number of people required to be present at a meeting in order for official business to take place. It can also be used more broadly to mean simply “a select group.”