Word of the Day
Learn a new word every day! The Dictionary.com team of language experts carefully selects each Word of the Day to add some panache to your vocabulary.
the mythical land of sleep
The land of Nod isn't on any map, but it's where your imagination wanders at night. Sleep, dreams, and the quiet drift from alert to unconscious all belong here. Its biblical and literary roots give the phrase a whimsical, timeless quality.
The exhausted toddler finally drifted off to the land of Nod after a long day.
to dress richly
To caparison is to dress someone or decorate something with flair and extravagance. The word can even refer to placing ceremonial coverings on horses. Whether for people, rooms, or animals, to caparison is to adorn with style.
The knights began to caparison their horses with silk and gold before the royal parade.
work of little or no value done merely to keep or look busy
A boondoggle is busywork dressed up as meaningful effort. Anyone who's ever been involved with a pointless work task or project knows the feeling. If you want a word that's all show and no substance, go for boondoggle.
The three-hour meeting to discuss the company's free coffee policy felt like a complete boondoggle.
a surface from which writing has been erased to make room for another text
A palimpsest is a surface rewritten over time, where earlier layers have been erased but still faintly show through. Old manuscripts with edits, historic documents on parchment, or walls with layered graffiti can be palimpsests. From a Greek term meaning "scraped again," the word is about both memory and reinvention.
Faint traces of old writing appeared beneath the new ink on the ancient palimpsest.
to convert into or regard as a concrete thing
To reify is to make something abstract feel real. The word comes from a Latin root meaning "thing," emphasizing the act of turning thought into substance. We might talk about an economy as "healthy" or "unhealthy," as though it were a person rather than an invisible network of complex forces. That's reifying something!
Through vivid storytelling, the novelist reified the notion of memory, making it feel almost tangible.
