Word of the Day

Bereft describes being left without someone or something important. A room bereft of furniture feels markedly empty, while a garden bereft of shade offers nowhere to escape the afternoon sun. Bereft can even describe the way a person keenly feels a loved one's absence, which helps give the word more emotional weight than simply "without."

A cicerone is a guide who shows visitors around a place of interest and helps them understand what they're seeing. Unlike a docent, who is most closely associated with museums and galleries, a cicerone might guide visitors through a historic district or ancient ruins. With a cicerone, sightseeing comes with explanations as well as directions.

To ratiocinate is to work through a question by reasoning it out. It's a word for the type of thinking that follows an idea step by step, weighing what makes sense before reaching a conclusion. When a problem can't be solved by instinct alone, it may be time to ratiocinate.

A parvenu is someone who has recently acquired wealth or status but is seen as lacking the polish that's expected to go with it. The word tends to carry a snobbish edge, since it reflects judgments about who does and does not belong in elite circles. Calling someone a parvenu might say as much about you as it does about them.

Memetic can describe something connected with memes and the way they spread through a culture or online space. A joke, image, phrase, or even a behavior can become memetic when people copy it, remix it, and pass it along. The word is chronically online, and a single memetic idea can easily take on a life of its own.