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.
noun
one of an Alaskan breed of large dogs having a dense, coarse coat, raised originally by the Inuit for drawing sleds.
Explanation
- First recorded in 1895–1900.
- Sometimes capitalized, malamute is from the Inupiaq word malimiut.
- Malimiut is a name for the local groups of Inupiaq peoples of the Kotzebue Sound region in what is now Western Alaska, who bred such dogs.
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- The dog was a beautiful mix of German Shepherd, Siberian Husky, and Alaskan Malamute.
- Bursting through the screen door, the malamute sprinted to greet us as we came up the walkway.
noun
an umbrella.
Explanation
- First recorded in 1895–1900.
- The stem, bumber-, is a facetious alteration of umbrella
- The -shoot element is a respelling of the -chute element in parachute.
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- The sudden rain shower caught her off guard, so she reached for her trusty bumbershoot.
- The old man chuckled as he twirled his colorful bumbershoot on a sunny day.
noun
a playful imitation of language consisting of invented, meaningless words; nonsense; gibberish.
Explanation
- Coined by Lewis Carroll in "Jabberwocky," a poem in Through the Looking Glass (1871).
- Explained by Carroll to mean “the result of much excited and voluble discussion.”
- Formed from jabber and the Old English word wocer or wocor, “offspring, fruit.”
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- The children filled the playground with their delightful jabberwocky, creating a language only they could understand.
- In her dreams, she often found herself wandering through a surreal landscape where creatures spoke in intricate jabberwocky.
adjective
sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding.
Explanation
- First recorded in 1375–1425.
- Comes via Middle English from Late Latin mellifluus, which combines the stem of mel “honey” and -flu(ere) “to flow.”
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- The mellifluous melody of the song filled the room, captivating everyone who listened.
- The poet's mellifluous verses painted a vivid and enchanting picture in the reader's mind.
noun
the formation of a word by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.
Explanation
- First recorded in 1570–80.
- Comes via Late Latin, from the Greek word onomatopoiía, which translates as “the making of words.”
- The word poet shares the same Greek stem that means, "maker."
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- The comic book artist skillfully used onomatopoeia in the action scenes, drawing "zap" and "pow" in speech bubbles.
- In poetry, onomatopoeia adds a vivid and auditory dimension to the words on the page.
