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
a family in which one or more children live with and are raised by their grandparent or grandparents.
Explanation
- Grandfamily was first recorded around 1960–65.
- Grandfamily was formed from a combination of grand-, meaning "one generation more remote" and family "a basic social unit."
- Other words that begin with grand- include grandparent, grandmother, grandfather, and grandfluencer, "an older person who’s known for being influential due to having a large social media following, especially one who seems at least old enough to be a grandparent."
- Living in a close-knit grandfamily has its challenges, but it also brings immeasurable love and support.
- The community organized a picnic to celebrate the unique bonds of grandfamilies, those between grandparents and their grandchildren.
noun
accidental discovery.
Explanation
- Serendipity was coined in English by Horace Walpole in 1754 in a translation from Italian of the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip.
- Serendipity comes from the word Serendip, which is the Classical Persian name for the country of Sri Lanka.
- Serendipity was used by Walpole to refer to an ability possessed by the heroes of the fairy tale to use both accidental discovery and wisdom to figure out the nature of a lost camel.
- During my travels through Europe, it was sheer serendipity to meet an old friend from college in a bustling café in Paris.
- Exploring the antique store turned into pure serendipity when he stumbled upon a hidden compartment in an old desk that contained a stack of rare coins.
noun
the spirit of the time.
Explanation
- Zeitgeist was first recorded in English in 1840–50.
- Zeitgeist comes from the German word Zeitgeist.
- Zeit means “time, age, epoch” and Geist means “spirit, mind, intellect.”
- The music of that era perfectly embodied the zeitgeist, expressing the collective emotions and aspirations of a generation.
- The zeitgeist of excess and extravagance was reflected in the fashion trends of the 1980s.
noun
a decoy entry in a dictionary or encyclopedia, secretly planted among the genuine entries to catch other publishers in the act of copying content.
Explanation
- Mountweazel was first recorded in 1975–80.
- Mountweazel comes from a fictitious entry in the fourth edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia for Lillian Virginia Mountweazel.
- Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, who supposedly died on assignment while covering an explosion for the fictitious Combustibles magazine, never existed.
- Readers of the new dictionary were stunned by the inclusion of the word "esquivalience," which was certainly a mountweazel.
- They spend many hours searching for mountweazels in Dictionary.com to no avail.
adjective
acceptable or legitimate.
Explanation
- Cromulent was first recorded in 1996 in an episode of the TV show The Simpsons.
- We added cromulent to Dictionary.com in March of 2021.
- Cromulent is a facetious formation that ends with a Latin adjective suffix.
- Cromulent was invented for the episode to describe the other neologism embiggen as acceptable.
- The committee considered various proposals and finally agreed on a cromulent solution that satisfied everyone.
- The idea of using recycled materials for packaging is cromulent in today's eco-conscious society.
