Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 25, 2026 is:





tactile • \TAK-tul\ • adjective

Tactile typically describes something, such as a sensation or experience, relating to the sense of touch. It can also be used specifically to describe something that is perceptible by touch.

// With the introduction of haptics to smartphones, receiving a call from a friend became a much more tactile experience.

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Examples:

“Streaming music services are great and their recommendation engines will serve up endless new tracks for listening. But vinyl records have a tactile appeal.” — Mike Snider, USA Today, 17 Apr. 2026





Did you know?

Tactile has many relatives in English, from the sometimes-synonymous tangible to familiar words like intact, tact, tangent, contingent, and even entire. All of these can be traced back to the Latin verb tangere, meaning “to touch.” Tactile was adopted by English speakers in the early 1600s (possibly by way of the French tactile) from the Latin adjective tactilis (“tangible”). In light of tactile having tangere for a touchstone, its dual senses of “perceptible by touch” and “of, relating to, or being the sense of touch” are perfectly sensible. Since the advent of film, television, and touchscreens, a new sense also appears to be developing, as tactile is increasingly used to suggest that something visual is particularly evocative or suggestive of a certain texture.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 24, 2026 is:





pundit • \PUN-dit\ • noun

A pundit is someone, especially an expert, who presents their opinions and ideas on a particular subject via the media.

// Grandpa likes watching political pundits spar about the issues of the day on the Sunday morning talk shows.

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Examples:

“… fashion pundits slammed the costumes, with some likening them to fast-fashion copies of the beloved icon’s high-fashion looks.” — Booth Moore, The Wrap, 13 Feb. 2026





Did you know?

It’s no hot take to say that the original pundits were highly learned scholars and teachers in India; it’s just a statement of fact. Our English word pundit comes from the Hindi word paṇḍit, a term of respect (and sometimes an honorary title) for a wise person, especially one with knowledge of philosophy, religion, and law; its ultimate source is the Sanskrit word paṇḍita, meaning “learned.” (Pandit today also increasingly refers specifically to a Hindu priest.) English speakers have used pundit to refer to sages of India since the 1600s, but as is typically done with English, they eventually pushed the word into new semantic territory. By the late 1800s, pundit could also refer to a member of what is sometimes called the commentariat or punditocracy—that is, the collective group of political commentators, financial analysts, and newspaper columnists paid to share their views on various subjects.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 23, 2026 is:





compendious • \kum-PEN-dee-us\ • adjective

A compendious book, research paper, article, etc. is one that provides most or all of the information one may want or require. Similarly, a person might be said to have compendious knowledge of a subject if they have a full and wide-ranging—that is, comprehensive—grasp of it. Compendious can also describe something that is both comprehensive and concise, as in “a compendious summary.”

// The coveted book prize was awarded to a compendious history of environmental literature in the United States.

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Examples:

“For much of a career that spanned decades, he pursued the oscines, or songbirds, of the Neotropics to their habitats in the Southern Hemisphere—sketching, making compendious field notes, and amassing a vast file of images that he used as a reference tool when painting the plates for definitive books …” — Guy Trebay, The Boston Globe, 26 July 2026





Did you know?

When Noah Webster titled his first dictionary, published in 1806, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, he used compendious to mean “short, brief, concise, summary,” as he defined it on the book's 58th page. This may come as a surprise given that compendious is now most often used to mean “comprehensive” and is applied to books, papers, etc. that are quite lengthy. But Webster’s Compendious Dictionary was no more than a preparation for his two-volume An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), and compendious traces back to the Latin adjective compendiōsus, meaning “both comprehensive and succinct.” Webster’s title signaled that his debut word compendium would be useful, if not exhaustive. Today, however, compendious asserts comprehensiveness, typically without brevity.

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





nemesis • \NEM-uh-siss\ • noun

A nemesis is a formidable foe—an opponent or enemy who is very difficult to defeat. As a proper noun, Nemesis refers to the Greek goddess of vengeance.

// She will be playing against her old nemesis for the championship.

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Examples:

"There were never any doubts about the man playing He-Man's nemesis, Skeletor. ... Frank Langella had caught Goddard's eye in 'Amadeus' on Broadway, and—buried under some impressive make-up—relished the opportunity to ham it up as Eternia's villain-in-chief." — Richard Edwards, Space.com, 12 Aug. 2026





Did you know?

Nemesis was the Greek goddess of vengeance, a deity who doled out rewards for noble acts and punishment for evil ones. The Greeks believed that Nemesis didn't always punish an offender immediately but might wait generations to avenge a crime. In English, nemesis originally referred to someone who brought a just retribution, but nowadays people are more likely to see simple animosity rather than justice in the actions of a nemesis.

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





elegiac • \el-uh-JYE-ak\ • adjective

Elegiac means “of, relating to, or comprising an elegy," an elegy being a sorrowful poem or song, and especially one that expresses sorrow for someone who is dead. Elegiac often describes a poem, song, piece of writing, etc. that mourns something now past.

// The elegiac tone of the singer’s first album always leaves me in tears.

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Examples:

“[Jacqueline] Harpman was writing in a different era, but the elegiac loneliness of her fiction anticipates our own solitary and screen-bound present. Is there anyone out there? her book seems to ask. How do I find you?” — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026





Did you know?

As a wise man once sang, “sad songs say so much.” Just how much they say has never been definitively quantified, but it is notable that English has the perfect adjective, elegiac, to describe things that are sorrowful or nostalgic in ways that suggest poetic and musical tearjerkers. Elegiac was borrowed into English in the 15th century from the Late Latin adjective elagiacus, which in turn comes from the Greek word elegeiakos. Elegeiakos traces back to the Greek word for “elegiac couplet,” which was elegeion. It is no surprise, then, that the earliest meaning of elegiac referred to such poetic couplets. These days, of course, the word is also used to describe anything sorrowful or nostalgic. As you may have guessed, another descendant of elegeion in English is elegy, which in its oldest sense refers to a poem in elegiac couplets, and now can also refer to a somewhat broader range of laments for something or someone that is now lost.