Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 15, 2026 is: quorum \KWOR-um\ noun Quorum refers to the smallest number of people who must be present at a meeting in order for official decisions to be made. Broadly speaking, quorum may refer to any select group. // We need a quorum of fifteen staff members on the call in order to move forward with the items on the meeting agenda. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quorum) Examples: “In Jewish law, some prayers, such as those in the morning service, can only be said communally, in a quorum of 10 Jewish adults, called a [minyan](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/minyan).” — Yonat Shimron, NPR, 16 July 2026 Did you know? It takes two drama queens to [tango](https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/origin-of-dance-phrases), three Nervous Nellies to change a lightbulb, and 218 U.S. [House Representatives](https://www.britannica.com/topic/House-of-Representatives-United-States-government) to constitute a formal meeting. Each of these minimums—especially the last one—may be described as a quorum. This word, which can be pluralized as quorums or quora, comes directly from the Latin word quorum, which translates as “of whom.” At one time, this Latin quorum was used in the wording of the commissions granting power to justices of the peace in England. Later, when it became an English noun, quorum initially referred to the number of justices of the peace who had to be present in order to hear a case. That sense is now rare, and today quorum is used to refer to the minimum number of people required to be present at a meeting in order for official business to take place. It can also be used more broadly to mean simply “a select group.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 14, 2026 is: empirical \im-PEER-uh-kul\ adjective When we describe something, such as data, as empirical, we mean that it originated in, or was based on, observation or experience. Empirical can also be used to describe something that can be verified or disproved by observation or experiment, as in “empirical laws.” // The team of conservation biologists has over the years collected reams of empirical data, from species inventories to soil analyses. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empirical) Examples: “She speaks the language of food chemistry and can tell you, based on empirical facts, why raspberry should never be boiled if you want the taste of raspberry rather than the taste of raspberry jam, and why coffee and tomato, which share several of the same volatile compounds, taste obviously right together despite sounding obviously wrong.” — Maria Gunko, The California Courier (Glendale, California), 30 July 2026 Did you know? When empirical first appeared as an adjective in English, it meant simply “in the manner of an empiric.” In the ancient world, empirics were members of a sect of doctors who practiced medicine using treatments observed to be clinically effective, rather than treatments based on theoretical principles. This all sounds fine and good to a modern reader, but empirics were in direct opposition to Galen, the 2nd century Greek physician whose theories and practices (including the theory of bodily humors) dominated medicine in Europe from the Middle Ages until the mid-17th century. As the underdogs in this rivalry, empirics took some reputational hits, evidenced by the use of empiric to refer to someone who disregards or deviates from the rules of science or accepted practice; to be called an empiric was sometimes like being called a quack or charlatan. Empirical can still be used critically to describe ideas and practices that rely on experience or observation alone and without due regard for system or theory. But, perhaps in a bit of a case of “the Empirics strike back,” empirical more often keeps its narrower sense, and is used positively to describe evidence and information grounded in observation and experience, or capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 13, 2026 is: shofar \SHOH-far\ noun A shofar is the horn of an animal (usually a ram) blown as a trumpet by the ancient Hebrews in battle and during religious observances. It is used in modern Judaism especially during Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur. // As a child, Eli’s favorite part of the High Holidays was the sounding of the shofar. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shofar) Examples: “Sheep were domesticated in ancient Mesopotamia over ten thousand years ago and we have the ancient cave paintings to prove it. Sheep appear in folklore, religion, and mythology from all over the world: the Greek golden fleece, the Jewish shofar, the Egyptian Pharaoh’s shepherd’s crook, Christianity’s Agnus Dei.” — Celia Mattison, Literary Hub, 30 Oct. 2025 Did you know? One of the shofar’s original uses was to proclaim the Jubilee year (a year of emancipation of enslaved Jews and restoration of alienated lands to their former owners). Today, it is mainly used in synagogues during the High Holidays. It is blown daily, except on [Shabbat](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Shabbat), during the month of Elul (the 12th month of the civil year or the 6th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar), and is sounded a number of times during the Rosh Hashanah services, and again at the end of the last service (known as neilah) on Yom Kippur. The custom is to sound the shofar in several series that alternate shorter notes resembling sobbing and wailing with longer unbroken blasts.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 12, 2026 is: hobnob \HAHB-nahb\ verb To hobnob is to socialize with others, especially with people of high social status. // A great deal can be learned about the entertainment industry by hobnobbing with folks at film festivals. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hobnob) Examples: “My whole attitude has been—because all I care about is the music—I don’t need to make the scene. I don’t need to hobnob with the executives because I see them all the rest of the year.” — Jem Aswad, quoted in Variety, 14 Apr. 2026 Did you know? In William Shakespeare’s [Twelfth Night](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Twelfth-Night), Sir Toby Belch warns Viola that Sir Andrew wants to duel, telling her “‘Hob, nob’ is his word” and then adding the gloss “give’t or take’t.” In today’s English, he might have said “take it or leave it.” Sir Toby’s hob, nob is an alteration of hab nab (“hit or miss,” “however things may turn out”), itself likely a shortening of the Middle English phrase habbe or nabbe (“whether I have or don’t have”). After Shakespeare’s day, hob-nob and hob or nob were used adverbially to mean “randomly.” And to drink hobnob, or hob or nob, was to take turns with one’s drinking buddies toasting each other’s health. Later, hobnob (as well as hob or nob, hob-a-nob, etc.) was verbified to mean “to drink socially” and then, dropping the booze, “to spend time with someone in a friendly way.” Today hobnob is used especially in situations where someone is chatting up someone famous or important, as in “hobnobbing with celebs.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 11, 2026 is: patina \puh-TEE-nuh\ noun A patina is a usually green film that forms on copper and bronze that is exposed to moist air for an extended time. The word patina can also refer to a shiny or dark surface that over time forms naturally on something (such as wood or leather), or to a literal or figurative thin layer. // The town erected a statue in her honor, which over the years developed a seafoam green patina. // Although the winery is brand-new, it has been constructed and decorated to give it a patina of old-world quaintness. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patina) Examples: "Family, friends and neighbors filled the frames with dancing and dominoes; their apartments painted in shades of mint, butter yellow and ... pink, flecked with a patina cultivated by humidity and time." — Suzy Exposito, The Los Angeles Times, 28 July 2026 Did you know? When Italians applied the word patina to the green film that forms on the surface of copper, they were drawing from Latin, in which patina means "a shallow dish." (Presumably, the Italian meaning developed from the observation of such film forming on copper dishes.) By the mid-18th century, English speakers were also calling the green film patina, and by the 20th century, they'd expanded the word's application to surface appearances of things that have grown more beautiful with age or use—think of an old wooden desk or a tarnished silver goblet. Use of the word to refer to thin layers both literal and figurative ("a patina of grime," "a patina of respectability") followed soon after. The related verb [patinate](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patinate) means "to give a patina to."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 10, 2026 is: loath \LOHTH\ adjective A person who is loath to do something is unwilling or reluctant to do that thing. // Proud of the company he had built, Henry was loath to admit that it was time to think about retiring. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/loath) Examples: “On these runs, I was loath to stop. I dreaded zebra crossings and the city-center pavements, and instead ran into the surrounding countryside, abandoning myself to the endless roads that seemed to be going nowhere.” — Madeline Potter, The Roma: A Traveling History, 2025 Did you know? Loath as some language sticklers may be to accept it—indeed, they may loathe the fact—loathe is an accepted, though less common, spelling variant of the adjective loath. The language sticklers know that loathe is most often used as a verb meaning "to hate," and their desire to keep the language tidy by letting loath alone mean "not willing or wanting to do something" is understandable. But here’s the rub: language is very often untidy. Both loath and loathe trace back to the Old English word lāth, meaning “loathsome, disgusting.” Each has had a number of variant spellings over the years, and for at least some portion of their history each word has taken on the spelling of the other. If you would like to keep the two distinct according to prevailing preferences, remember that loath is how you feel (reluctant, unwilling), and loathe is what you do (hate, dislike).

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 9, 2026 is: stigma \STIG-muh\ noun Stigma refers to a set of negative and often unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something. // The organization is animated by a commitment to challenging stigmas associated with the condition. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stigma) Examples: “The stigma surrounding workers of my generation is real—some depict us as burned-out, overworked employees who are difficult to manage and are merely looking for a paycheck while mapping out our exit strategy for retirement.” — Suzie Jimenez, Business Insider, 21 July 2026 Did you know? Tattoos are now common, but not long ago adorning one’s body with ink was frowned upon by much of mainstream society. Even today, tattooed individuals in some communities and contexts face stigma based on their particular form of self-expression. It turns out that the link between tattoos and stigma is ancient, at least etymologically. The roots of stigma trace back all the way to the Greek verb stizein, meaning “to tattoo,” which led to the Latin noun stigma meaning “mark” or “brand.” The earliest English uses of stigma hew close to those of its Latin forebear; the word first referred to a brand left by a hot iron. In modern use, the scar is figurative: stigma most often refers to a set of negative and often unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something, as when people talk about the stigma associated with mental illness, or the stigma of poverty.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 8, 2026 is: magnanimous \mag-NAN-uh-mus\ adjective Magnanimous is a formal word that means “having or showing a generous and kind nature.” // She was too magnanimous to resent the unkind words of those grousing about her winning the spelling bee. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/magnanimous) Examples: “Think before you act or speak. Drive and walk carefully. Be magnanimous and forgiving if others make a boo-boo.” — Georgia Nicols, The Boston Globe, 27 Nov. 2025 Did you know? When you see anima, animus, or a similar formation in a word, it’s often an indicator of something alive, lively, or spirited. Something described as [animated](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/animated) is full of life, for example, and the word animal refers to a living thing. The Latin word anima means “breath” or “soul” and animus means “spirit.” In magnanimous, animus is joined by the Latin word magnus, meaning “great.” Basically meaning “greatness of spirit,” [magnanimity](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/magnanimity) is the opposite of selfishness. A truly magnanimous person can lose without complaining and win without gloating, and angry disputes can sometimes be resolved when one side makes a magnanimous gesture toward the other.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 7, 2026 is: gist \JIST\ noun Gist, which almost always appears in the phrase “the gist,” refers to the general or basic meaning of something written or said. // I found the author’s grandiloquent style of writing intolerable, but I got the gist of the story. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gist) Examples: “His daughter dismissed the film they were watching early on, [Tim] Allen explained, because she'd already got the gist of what was going to happen.” — Steven McIntosh, BBC, 1 June 2026 Did you know? The main point, overarching theme, essence—that’s gist in a nutshell. The gist of gist, if you will. The gist of a conversation, argument, story, or what-have-you is what we rely on when the actual words and details are only imperfectly recalled, inessential, or too voluminous to recount in their entirety. Gist was borrowed from the Anglo-French legal phrase laccion gist (“the action lies/is based [on]”) in the 17th century, and it was originally used in law as a term referring to the foundation or grounds for a legal action without which the action would not be legally sustainable.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 6, 2026 is: inexorable \i-NEK-suh-ruh-bul\ adjective Inexorable is a formal word used to describe something that cannot be stopped or changed. // For some, the changing autumn foliage is a beautiful yet bittersweet reminder of the inexorable march of time. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inexorable) Examples: “At the summer solstice, the Sun ‘stands still’—the meaning of the Latin solstice—and begins its progression back toward the south. Days shorten, shadows lengthen, and the cold and dreariness of winter return. Europeans across the entire continent have noted this simple and inexorable cycle for millennia. Neolithic monuments such as Ireland’s Newgrange and England’s Stonehenge, both of which date from around 5,000 years ago, were built to mark solstices.” — Thomas A. DuBois, The Conversation, 17 June 2026 Did you know? You can beseech and implore until you’re blue in the face, but that won’t have any effect on something that’s inexorable. Inexorable, which has been part of the English language since the 1500s, was originally often applied to people, desires, or actions held to be particularly resistant to persuasion (or dissuasion). In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, for example, Romeo declares that his “intents” are “more fierce and more inexorable far / Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.” These days, it is usually used to describe the progression of something through time, or toward an end result, commonly modifying nouns like drift, pull, rise, march, decline, or tide. Inexorable comes from the Latin adjective inexorabilis, which is itself a combination of the prefix in-, meaning “not,” plus exorabilis, meaning “pliant.” If you’re wondering whether English has an [exorable](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exorable) meaning “capable of being moved by entreaty,” indeed it does, though exorable is far less common than its antonym.