Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 14, 2025 is:
vexillology • \vek-suh-LAH-luh-jee\ • noun
Vexillology is the study of flags.
// An expert in vexillology, Cynthia has an impressive collection of flags displayed in her home.
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Examples:
"... flags should have simple elements, a limited number of colors, and no words. One of the tenets of vexillology is that the elements of the flag should be simple enough to be easily drawn by a child." — The Toledo (Ohio) Blade, 9 Jan. 2025
Did you know?
"The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history." Woodrow Wilson was speaking of the U.S. flag when he made that statement in an address in June of 1915, but those who engage in vexillology—that is, vexillologists—would likely find the comment applicable to any national banner. Vexillologists undertake scholarly investigations of flags, producing papers with titles such as "A Review of the Changing Proportions of Rectangular Flags since Medieval Times, and Some Suggestions for the Future." In the late 1950s, they coined vexillology as a name for their field of research, basing it on vexillum, the Latin term for a square flag or banner of the ancient Roman cavalry. The adjectives vexillologic and vexillological and the noun vexillologist followed soon thereafter.
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1:58
rambunctious
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 13, 2025 is:
rambunctious • \ram-BUNK-shuss\ • adjective
Rambunctious describes someone or something showing uncontrolled exuberance.
// On my first day of student teaching, I was tasked with managing a class of rambunctious youngsters.
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Examples:
"To juvenile loggerhead sea turtles, a tasty squid might as well be a disco ball. When they sense food—or even think some might be nearby—these reptiles break into an excited dance. ... Researchers recently used this distinctive behavior to test whether loggerheads could identify the specific magnetic field signatures of places where they had eaten in the past. The results, published in Nature, reveal that these rambunctious reptiles dance when they encounter magnetic conditions they associate with food." — Jack Tamisiea, Scientific American, 12 Feb. 2025
Did you know?
Rambunctious first appeared in print in the early half of the 19th century, at a time when the fast-growing United States was forging its identity and indulging in a fashion for colorful new coinages suggestive of the young nation's optimism and exuberance. Rip-roaring, scalawag, scrumptious, hornswoggle, and skedaddle are other examples of the lively language of that era. Did Americans alter the largely British rumbustious because it sounded, well, British? That could be. Rumbustious, which first appeared in Britain in the late 1700s just after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was probably based on robustious, a much older adjective meaning both "robust" and "boisterous."
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2:09
impute
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 12, 2025 is:
impute • \im-PYOOT\ • verb
To impute something, such as a motive, act, or emotion, to a person or thing is to assert that the person or thing is guilty of that motive, act, emotion, etc.
// It is shocking that they would impute such awful motives to me.
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Examples:
“California is about to ease into the 2026 race for governor, and if you can pick any of the current candidates from a police lineup, either you work in Sacramento, have an unhealthy obsession with state politics, or both. That’s not to impute criminality on the part of any of those running to succeed the term-limited Gavin Newsom. ... Rather, those bidding to become California’s 41st governor aren’t exactly a collection of name-in-lights celebrities.” — Mark Z. Barabak, The Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan. 2025
Did you know?
Impute is a formal word typically used in contexts in which a motive, act, or emotion is credited or ascribed to someone, especially falsely or unfairly. For example, if you impute dishonesty to someone you’re asserting that they’re not telling the truth. And if you impute selfish motives to someone’s actions you’re asserting that they were motivated by selfishness. In the form imputed the word is often paired with income: imputed income is income calculated from the supposed value of intangible or non-cash sources, such as use of a company car, or an employee discount. What’s the connection between these meanings? Both involve considering someone or something in a particular way, tying each meaning to the word’s Latin ancestor: putare means “to consider.”
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2:12
debilitating
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 11, 2025 is:
debilitating • \dih-BILL-uh-tay-ting\ • adjective
Debilitating is a formal word used to describe things that seriously impair strength or the ability to function.
// She suffers from debilitating migraines.
// The class helped him conquer his debilitating fear of public speaking.
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Examples:
"Worry is such a debilitating thing that robs you of your energy ..." — Georgia Nicols, The Denver Post, 3 Apr. 2025
Did you know?
Debilitating describes things that cause serious impairment of strength or ability to function. The word appears in both medical and general contexts; someone can suffer from debilitating nausea or debilitating stage fright. An adjective that takes the form of a verb, debilitating dates to the mid-17th century, making it the youngest of a trio: its source, the verb debilitate ("to impair the strength of"), dates to the early 16th century, and the noun debility ("weakness, infirmity") has been in use since the 15th century. All come from the Latin word for "weak," debilis. Polyglots may recognize the influence of debilis in words from Spanish, Russian, Czech, Turkish, Danish, and many other languages as well.
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1:45
minutia
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 10, 2025 is:
minutia • \muh-NOO-shee-uh\ • noun
Minutia refers to a small or minor detail. It is usually used in its plural form minutiae.
// Unaccustomed to legalese, I was bewildered by the contract's minutiae.
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Examples:
“The novel is an intricate thatch of corkscrew twists, vivid characters, dead-on colloquial dialogue, and lawyerly minutiae that culminates in a courtroom showdown worthy of Dominick Dunne.” — David Friend, Vanity Fair, 1 Apr. 2025
Did you know?
We’ll try not to bore you with the minor details of minutia, though some things are worth noting about the word’s history and usage. It’ll only take a minute! Minutia was borrowed into English in the 18th century from the Latin plural noun minutiae, meaning “trifles” or “details,” which comes from the singular noun minutia, meaning “smallness.” In English, minutia is most often used in the plural as either minutiae (pronounced \muh-NOO-shee-ee\) or, on occasion, as simply minutia. The Latin minutia, incidentally, comes from minutus (also the ancestor of the familiar English word minute), an adjective meaning “small” that was created from the verb minuere, meaning “to lessen.”
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