Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 27, 2024 is: cardinal \KAHRD-nul\ adjective
Cardinal is an adjective used to describe things—usually abstract things such as rules or principles—that are of basic or main importance. The word is also used, especially in the phrase “cardinal sin,” with the meaning “very serious or grave.”

// “Seek out multiple sources” is a cardinal rule of good news reporting.

// The four cardinal points on a compass are North, South, East, and West.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cardinal)

Examples:

“The cardinal rule of stargazing is going somewhere dark—the darker the skies, the better the view.” — Stefanie Waldek, Travel + Leisure, 11 Aug. 2023

Did you know?

Mathematics, religion, ornithology—everything seems to hinge on cardinal. As a noun, cardinal has important uses in all three of the aforementioned realms of human inquiry; as an adjective cardinal describes things of basic or main importance, suggesting that outcomes turn or depend on them. Both adjective and noun trace back to the Latin adjective cardinalis, meaning “serving as a hinge,” and further to the noun cardo, meaning “[hinge](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hinge).” Since the 12th century, cardinal has been used as a noun referring to a fundamentally important clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church, ranking only below the pope. (The clergyman's red robes gave the familiar North American songbird its name.) By the 1300s cardinal was also being used as the adjective we know today, to describe abstract things such as principles or rules (as opposed to, say, [red wheelbarrows](https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Carlos-Williams)) upon which so much depends.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 26, 2024 is: zero-sum \ZEER-oh-SUM\ adjective
Zero-sum describes something, such as a game, mentality, or situation, in which any gain corresponds directly with an equivalent loss.

// Dividing up the budget is a zero-sum game.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zero-sum)


Examples:

“Domestic migration is zero-sum, meaning a loss of college graduates prized by local officials and tax collectors in Washington or San Francisco can be a gain for Kansas City or Orlando.” — Josh Katz, The New York Times, 15 May 2023

Did you know?

Does [game theory](https://www.britannica.com/science/game-theory) sound like fun? It can be—if you are a mathematician or economist who needs to analyze a competitive situation in which the outcome is determined by the choices of the players and chance. Game theory was introduced by mathematician [John von Neumann](https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-von-Neumann) and economist [Oskar Morgenstern](https://www.britannica.com/money/Oskar-Morgenstern) in their 1944 book The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. In game theory, a zero-sum game is one, such as chess or checkers, where each player has a clear purpose that is completely opposed to that of the opponent. In economics, a situation is zero-sum if the gains of one party are exactly balanced by the losses of another and no net gain or loss is created; however, such situations in real life are rare.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 25, 2024 is: remuneration \rih-myoo-nuh-RAY-shun\ noun
Remuneration is a formal word that refers to an amount of money paid to someone for a service, loss, or expense, or to the act of paying such an amount. It is synonymous with [recompense](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recompense) and [pay](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pay).

// The actor was offered a modest speaking fee by the host as remuneration for giving her speech at the awards ceremony.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/remuneration)

Examples:

"Workers are paid per task, with remuneration ranging from a cent to a few dollars—although the upper end is considered something of a rare gem, workers say." — Niamh Rowe, Wired, 15 Nov. 2023

Did you know?

Our evidence shows remuneration to be most at home in writing that concerns financial matters, especially when large amounts of money or forms of compensation are involved. Whether it's because money is often expressed in numerals, or simply because the n and m are adjacent to each other on our keyboards, reMUNeration often appears misspelled as reNUMeration. It pays to know, however, that in fact, renumeration is a distinct term, a rare word meaning "the act of [enumerating](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enumerate) again" (enumerate means "to list" or "to count").

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 24, 2024 is: clandestine \klan-DESS-tun\ adjective
Clandestine describes something done secretly, or in a private place or way.

// The wedding was a clandestine affair in Las Vegas.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clandestine)


Examples:

"On the surface, it uses the traditional tropes of the spy movie—a secret intelligence network, cryptic codenames, clandestine meetings in public places—but Ghost Trail isn’t exactly thrilling, certainly not in the manner of a John le Carré novel." — Damon Wise, Deadline, 15 May 2024

Did you know?

[Psst!](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/psst)—if your first instinct, upon being asked what you’ve been up to, is to [clam up](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clam-up), your querier may suspect you’ve been involved in some clandestine activities. Clandestine often substitutes for [secret](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/secret) and [covert](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/covert), and it is commonly applied to actions that involve secrecy maintained for an evil, illicit, or unauthorized purpose, as in "clandestine activities pursued under cover of night." It comes to English by way of Middle French, from the Latin word clandestinus, which is itself from the Latin adverb clam, meaning "secretly." Note that this clam is not the ancestor of the English word [clam](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clam), despite how tightly sealed and thus secretive the [bivalves](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bivalve) may seem.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 23, 2024 is: polemic \puh-LEM-ik\ noun
A polemic is a strong written or spoken attack against someone else’s opinions, beliefs, practices, etc.

// Her book is a fierce polemic against societal inequalities.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polemic)


Examples:

“That winter of 1774-1775 could be considered the nadir of the entire American patriot movement. After the closing of the First Continental Congress, North Americans ‘turned upon one another as never before.’ The colonists had never had a single view of Britain or how to respond to the measures it was trying to impose on the American colonies. … Strong polemics against further resistance to the British government spouted from printing presses across the colonies.” — Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, The Age of Revolutions, 2024

Did you know?

[Diatribe](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diatribe), [jeremiad](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jeremiad), [philippic](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/philippic) … the English language sure has a lot of formal words for the things we say or write when we are—to use a decidedly less formal term—big mad. We will refrain from going on a [tirade](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tirade) about it, however, especially since it’s good to have options with subtle differences in tone and meaning. Polemic, which traces back ultimately to the Greek word for war, polemos, is the word you want to refer specifically to an aggressive attack on someone’s ideas or principles. Someone who is [cheesed off](https://bit.ly/3Qhy2jf) because they don’t like cheese, for example, wouldn’t write a polemic about it. A [turophile](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turophile) upset about the [gustatory](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gustatory) philosophy behind their local [cheesemonger’s](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cheesemonger) recent offerings just might.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 22, 2024 is: supersede \soo-per-SEED\ verb
Supersede is a verb meaning "to take the place of (someone or something that is considered old, inferior, or no longer useful)." It is used synonymously with [replace](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/replace) and [displace](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/displace).

// This edition of the manual supersedes the previous one.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supersede)

Examples:

"The passive-aggressive signals to wind our gatherings down were replaced by point-blank requests to make less noise, have less fun, do our living somewhere else, even though these rooms belonged to us, too. … In those moments, I felt hot with shame and anger, yet unable to articulate why. It took me years to understand that, in demanding my friends and I quiet down, these students were implying that their comfort superseded our joy." — Xochitl Gonzalez, The Atlantic, 1 Aug. 2022

Did you know?

Language is constantly evolving, with old spellings and meanings superseded by new ones over time. Naturally, supersede itself has its share of predecessors. Supersede ultimately comes from the Latin verb supersedēre, meaning "to sit on top of" (sedēre means "to sit"), "to be [superior](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/superior) to," or "to [refrain](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refrain) from," but it came to English through Scots Middle English, where it was rendered superceden and used synonymously with [defer](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defer). Modern English speakers are often confused about how to spell supersede—it sometimes turns up as [supercede](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supercede). In fact, some of the earliest records of the word in English show it spelled with a c. Though both spellings can be etymologically justified, over time supersede won out as the "correct" version.