Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2024 is: extemporize \ik-STEM-puh-ryze\ verb

To extemporize means to do something [extemporaneously](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporaneously)—in other words, to improvise.

// A good talk show host must be able to extemporize when interviews don’t go as planned.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporize)

Examples:

“The president was fast on his feet. Sensing an opportunity to extemporize, he looked around the chamber, pleased.” — Robin Abcarian, The Los Angeles Times, 12 Feb. 2023

Did you know?

Let’s dive into the essence of extemporize by exploring its origins. (We’ll try not to bore you with too many [extraneous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extraneous) details.) To extemporize is to say or do something [off-the-cuff](https://bit.ly/4ax9nPs); extemporize was coined by adding the suffix -ize to the Latin phrase ex tempore, meaning “on impulse” or “on the spur of the moment.” (Incidentally, ex tempore was also borrowed wholesale into English with the meaning “in an extemporaneous manner.”) Other descendants of ex tempore include the now rare [extemporal](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporal) and [extemporary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporary)—both synonyms of [extemporaneous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extemporaneous)—and as you have no doubt guessed by now, extemporaneous itself.