Word of the Day

A tycoon is a businessperson with great wealth or influence. It entered English from a Japanese term meaning "great prince," and was originally used to describe shoguns. Now the word has traded battlefields for boardrooms, but the power plays remain.

To gleam means "to send out a flash or beam of light." The word traces back to Old English and is related to other words for shining light, such as "glimmer" and "glint." From sunlight catching a diamond ring to a spark in someone's eye, something that gleams never goes unnoticed.

A leviathan is something of immense size or strength — often the kind that shakes the ground or rules the sea. The word comes from Hebrew, where it originally referred to a giant sea creature. These days, it might describe a business behemoth, a political force, or anything too big to ignore.

Myriad means "too many to count." When it entered English from Greek hundreds of years ago, it meant "ten thousand." But today, the word is about countlessness, not calculation. So go ahead and use it next time "a lot" just isn't enough.

A caravan is a group journeying together, especially across difficult or dangerous areas. The word traces back to Farsi — a language also known as Persian — and ultimately comes from a root meaning "army." No solo missions here; caravans move as one.