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

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 27, 2024 is: glean \GLEEN\ verb
To glean is to gather or collect something bit by bit, or in a gradual way. Glean can also be used to mean “to search (something) carefully” and “to find out.”

// Neil has a collection of antique tools gleaned from flea markets and garage sales.

// They spent days gleaning the files for information.

// The police used old-fashioned detective work to glean his whereabouts.

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


Examples:

“Not only did procuring money to maintain her company figure in Graham’s acceptance of the occasional theater job during the 1930s; perhaps, too, she thought that being associated with a successful play could bring new audiences to her dance performances. There can be no doubt that she gleaned something from each experience outside the rigorous and profoundly idiosyncratic works she created for her company, even if she learned that there were some projects she would prefer never to undertake again.” — Deborah Jowitt, Errand into the Maze: The Life and Works of Martha Graham, 2024

Did you know?

While it is certainly true that one must reap what one sows (that is, harvest the crops that one plants), what should be done about the grain and other produce left over that the reapers missed? Well, friends, that must be gleaned—[waste not, want not](https://bit.ly/4aRGUV1), after all. It’s a finicky business, too, picking through stalks and under leaves and whatnot. When it was first used in English in the 14th century, glean carried both the sense of “to gather grain or other produce left by reapers” and the more figurative meaning of “to gather information or material bit by bit,” reflecting the slow, gradual, painstaking work of scouring the fields. Over the years, and especially in the 20th and 21st centuries, glean has also come to be used frequently with the meaning “to find out, learn, ascertain.” This sense has been criticized by folks who think glean should always imply the drudgery involved in the literal grain-gathering sense, but it is well established and perfectly valid.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 26, 2024 is: symposium \sim-POH-zee-um\ noun
Symposium can refer either to a formal meeting at which experts discuss a particular topic, or to a collection of articles on a particular subject. Symposium has two plural forms: symposia and symposiums.

// Professors and graduate students attended a three-day symposium on climate change.

// The organization will be publishing a symposium on genetic research.

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


Examples:

“In 1966, at a meeting remembered in anthropological lore as the beginning of hunter-gatherer studies, seventy-five experts assembled in Chicago to synthesize our knowledge about foraging peoples. More than ninety-nine per cent of human history was spent without agriculture, the organizers figured, so it was worth documenting that way of life before it disappeared altogether. The symposium—and an associated volume that appeared two years later, both titled ‘Man the Hunter’—exemplified an obsession with hunting, meat-eating, and maleness.” — Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 25 Sept. 2023

Did you know?

When you hear the word symposium, you may—quite understandably—envision conferences full of intellectuals giving heady presentations on various [arcana](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arcana). But it was drinking, more than thinking, that drew people to the original symposia and gave us the word. Symposium (symposia or symposiums in plural form) comes from the Greek noun symposion, the word ancient Greeks used for a drinking party that follows a banquet. Symposion in turn comes from sympinein, a verb that combines pinein, meaning “to drink,” with the prefix syn-, meaning “together.” Originally, English speakers only used symposium to refer to such an ancient Greek party, but in the 18th century British gentlemen’s clubs started using the word for [confabs](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/confab) in which conversation was fueled by drinking. By the end of the 18th century, symposium had gained the more sober sense we know today, referring to meetings in which the focus is more on imbibing ideas and less on imbibing, say, [mead](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mead).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 25, 2024 is: countermand \KOUNT-er-mand\ verb
To countermand an order is to revoke it, especially by giving a new order.

// Orders to blow up the bridge were countermanded by local officials.

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

Examples:

"He [rugby player Lewis Jones] almost missed his 1950 Welsh debut as he was about to board an aircraft carrier for Hong Kong before the orders were countermanded." — The Daily Telegraph (London), 9 Mar. 2024

Did you know?

In the military, one's mandate is to follow the commands (and sometimes the countermands) of the officers. Doing their bidding is not particularly commendable—it's simply mandatory. The Latin verb mandare, meaning "to entrust" or "to order," is the authority behind countermand. It's also behind the words [mandate](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mandate), [command](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/command), [demand](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/demand), [commend](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commend) (which can mean "to entrust" as well as "to praise"), and [mandatory](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mandatory). Countermand came to English via Anglo French, where the prefix cuntre- ("against") was combined with the verb mander ("to command"). It has been a part of English since the 1400s.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 24, 2024 is: ebullient \ih-BULL-yunt\ adjective
If someone or something is appealingly lively and enthusiastic, they may also be described as ebullient.

// Akua's ebullient personality made her the life of the party.

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


Examples:

"[Les] McCann, who would later serve as a drummer and horn player in his high-school marching band, soon developed a love for the great symphonies and for distinctive rhythm and blues vocal stylists such as Bullmoose Jackson, Billy Eckstine and Louis Jordan. But it was the ebullient gospel music he heard at his local Baptist church that touched him the deepest. 'That was the foundation, the basis for all of my knowledge,' says McCann, whose [rollicking](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rollicking) piano work still bears a strong gospel tinge." — George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Jan. 2024

Did you know?

Someone who is ebullient is bubbling over with enthusiasm, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that ebullient comes from the Latin verb ebullire, which means "to bubble out." When ebullient was first used in the late 1500s its meaning hewed closely to its Latin source: ebullient meant "boiling" or "bubbling," and described things like boiling water and boiling oil instead of someone's bubbly personality. Only later did the word's meaning broaden beyond describing the liveliness of a boiling liquid to encompass emotional liveliness and enthusiasm.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2024 is: panoply \PAN-uh-plee\ noun
Panoply is a formal word that refers to a group or collection that is impressive either because of its size or because it includes so many different kinds of people or things.

// The new website offers shoppers a panoply of snack foods, soft drinks, and other treats from around the world.

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


Examples:

“Given that all of us, in our daily lives, are constantly confronted by a limitless confusion of knowledge … one can say that all of us are being educated all the while, and that education is in its essence the business of any transmission of knowledge from one party to another. … No part of this vast panoply of knowledge diffusion is more important for the future of human society than that which passes in one direction, downward across the generations, from the older members of a society to the younger.” — Simon Winchester, Knowing What We Know, 2023

Did you know?

Despite having Greek origins and similar sounds, panoply is not related—etymologically or [semantically](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/semantic)—to [monopoly](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monopoly); its history has more to do with Mediterranean warfare than Mediterranean Avenue. Panoply comes from the Greek word panoplia, which referred to the full suit of armor worn by [hoplites](https://www.britannica.com/topic/hoplite), heavily armed infantry soldiers of ancient Greece. Panoplia is a blend of the prefix pan-, meaning “all,” and hopla, meaning “arms” or “armor.” (As you may have guessed, hopla is also an ancestor of [hoplite](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoplite).) Panoply entered English in the early 17th century with its Greek use intact: it referred to a full set of armor—an impressive array, you might say, of protective [bits and bobs](https://bit.ly/3PMr0ml), from breastplates to [brassards](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brassard). Over time, panoply developed its figurative sense referring to an impressive, extensive collection or array of things, as in “She won the game by bankrupting her opponents with a panoply of properties built up with houses and hotels.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 22, 2024 is: belie \bih-LYE\ verb
To belie something is to give a false idea or impression of it. Belie can also mean "to show (something) to be false or wrong."

// Martin's easy banter and relaxed attitude belied his nervousness.

// Their actions belie their claim of innocence.

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

Examples:

"But his humble presence belies the adventurous life that brought him through World War II and multiple attempts at sailing around the world." — Alejandra Garcia, The Sacramento (California) Bee, 21 Dec. 2020

Did you know?

"What is a lie?" asks [Lord Byron](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lord-Byron-poet) in Don Juan. He then answers himself: "'Tis but the truth in masquerade...." The history of belie illustrates a certain connection between lying and masquerading as something other than one is. In Old English, belie meant "to deceive by lying," but in time, it came to mean "to tell lies about," taking on a sense similar to that of the modern word [slander](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slander). Eventually, its meaning softened, shifting from an act of outright lying to one of mere misrepresentation; by the 1700s, the word was being used in the sense "to disguise or conceal." Nowadays, belie is typically applied when someone or something gives an impression that is in disagreement with the facts, rather than in contexts where there is an intentional [untruth](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/untruth). A happy face put on to set others at ease, for example, may belie an internal disgruntlement.