Word of the Day
tussie-mussie
noun
a small bunch of flowers or herbs.
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Why Dictionary.com chose tussie-mussie
More about tussie-mussie
- First recorded in 1400–50.
- From late Middle English tusmose or tussemose.
- Also spelled tuzzy-muzzy.
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EXAMPLES OF TUSSIE-MUSSIE
- The thoughtful hostess offered each guest a personalized tussie-mussie as they departed.
- The charming cottage was adorned with a tussie-mussie of fragrant herbs, adding a lovely touch to the decor.
susurrus
noun
a soft murmuring or rustling sound; whisper.
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Why Dictionary.com chose susurrus
More about susurrus
- First recorded in 1825–35.
- From the Latin word for “whisper.”
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EXAMPLES:
- The wind rustled through the trees, creating a gentle susurrus that echoed in the forest.
- In the library, whispered conversations created a faint susurrus in the background.
CAPTCHA
noun
an online test designed so that humans but not computers are able to pass it, used as a security measure and usually involving a visual-perception task.
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Why Dictionary.com chose CAPTCHA
More about CAPTCHA
- CAPTCHA was first recorded around 2000–05.
- CAPTCHA comes from the words Completely Automated Public Turing (Test to Tell) Computers and Humans Apart.
- A Turing test is a test proposed by British mathematician Alan Turing that is often taken as a test of whether a computer has humanlike intelligence.
- If a panel of human beings conversing with an unknown entity (via keyboard, for example) believes that that entity is human, and if the entity is actually a computer, then the computer is said to have passed the Turing test.
EXAMPLES OF CAPTCHA
- To ensure security, the website introduced a CAPTCHA feature that required users to complete a quick pattern recognition task before logging in.
- It is often more difficult than one would expect to correctly identify all the traffic lights in a CAPTCHA.
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