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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 19, 2025 is:

devise • \dih-VYZE\  • verb

To devise is to invent or plan something that is difficult or complicated in some way.

// The siblings devised a plan to clean the house from top to bottom with hopes of getting their parents to let them go to the concert.

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Examples:

“The Timberwolves surprisingly advanced to the Western Conference finals last year before losing to the Mavericks. After a troublesome season, Minnesota returned before being thumped by the top-seeded Thunder. The series wasn't really close, and the Timberwolves ... will have to devise a way to compete in the Western Conference with the Lakers, Nuggets, Clippers, Spurs, Mavericks, and Warriors all chasing them.” — Gary Washburn, The Boston Globe, 1 June 2025

Did you know?

There’s something inventive about devise, a word that stems from Latin dividere, meaning “to divide.” By the time devise was being used in English, its Anglo-French forebear deviser had accumulated an array of senses, including “divide,” “distribute,” “arrange,” “order,” “plan,” “invent,” and “assign by will.” English adopted some of these and added new senses, such as “imagine” and “guess,” that have fallen out of use over time. Today devise is most commonly used as a synonym of invent or plot in situations where the objective is difficult or complicated. Note that devise is often confused with another dividere (and deviser) descendent: device refers to a technique, method, tool, or small machine or gadget. One way to help keep their spellings straight is to remember that ice, usually a noun, is found at the end of the noun device, not the verb devise.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 18, 2025 is:

meritorious • \mair-uh-TOR-ee-us\  • adjective

Meritorious is a formal adjective used to describe something that is deserving of honor, praise, or esteem.

// She was honored for her meritorious service to the city.

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Examples:

"The Air Medal is awarded to anyone who distinguishes themselves through meritorious achievement while flying." — Rick Mauch, The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, 6 Mar. 2025

Did you know?

People who demonstrate meritorious behavior certainly earn our respect, and you can use that fact to remember that meritorious has its roots in the Latin verb merēre, which means "to earn." (Merēre is also the source of the English noun and verb merit.) Nowadays, the rewards earned for meritorious acts are likely to be of an immaterial nature—gratitude, admiration, praise, etc.—but that wasn't always so. The history of meritorious recalls a reward more concrete in nature: cold, hard cash. In Latin, meritorious literally means "bringing in money."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 17, 2025 is:

fugitive • \FYOO-juh-tiv\  • noun

Fugitive refers to a person who runs away to avoid being captured or arrested.

// The FBI regularly updates and circulates its list of most wanted fugitives, and asks communities where they might be seen to be careful and on the lookout.

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Examples:

“The automated plate readers, as they are known, enable authorities to track when vehicles of interest pass through certain intersections. The devices can also be mounted on police cars, allowing officers to sweep up troves of license plate data as they drive around. Police say the gadgets help investigate stolen cars, locate fugitives, and solve crimes by checking who came and went from a neighborhood on any given day.” — Libor Jany, The Los Angeles Times, 10 Apr. 2025

Did you know?

Fugitive entered English as both a noun and an adjective in the 14th century, coming ultimately from the Latin verb fugere, meaning “to flee.” As a noun, it originally referred, as it still does today, to someone who flees a country or location to escape persecution or danger, as from war, making it synonymous with another fugere descendent, refugee. The noun soon expanded beyond those fleeing peril to individuals (such as suspects, witnesses, or defendants) trying to elude law enforcement especially by fleeing the pertinent jurisdiction. The adjective fugitive describes those literally running away or intending flight, but also has multiple figurative uses, being applied to that which is elusive, of short duration, or of transient interest, among other things.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 16, 2025 is:

abject • \AB-jekt\  • adjective

Abject usually describes things that are extremely bad or severe. It can also describe something that feels or shows shame, or someone lacking courage or strength.

// Happily, their attempts to derail the project ended in abject failure.

// The defendants were contrite, offering abject apologies for their roles in the scandal that cost so many their life savings.

// The author chose to cast all but the hero of the book as abject cowards.

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Examples:

“This moment ... points toward the book’s core: a question of how to distinguish tenderness from frugality. Is ‘Homework’ about a child who took a remarkably frictionless path, aided by a nation that had invested in civic institutions, from monetary hardship to the ivory tower? Merely technically. Is it a story of how members of a family, protected by a social safety net from abject desperation, developed different ideas about how to relate to material circumstance? We’re getting there.” — Daniel Felsenthal, The Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2025

Did you know?

We’re sorry to say you must cast your eyes down to fully understand abject: in Middle English the word described those lowly ones who are rejected and cast out. By the 15th century, it was applied as it still is today to anything that has sunk to, or exists in, a low state or condition; in modern use it often comes before the words poverty, misery, and failure. Applied to words like surrender and apology, it connotes hopelessness and humility. The word’s Latin source is the verb abicere, meaning “to throw away, throw down, overcome, or abandon.” Like reject, its ultimate root is the Latin verb jacere, meaning “to throw.” Subject is also from jacere, and we’ll leave you with that word as a way to change the subject.