Imbricate is a verb that means to overlap or cause to overlap.

Our word of the day comes from a Latin word that described a certain kind of roof tile. These tiles often overlapped in a way that gave birth to our contemporary use of the word. Imbricate can be used literally or figuratively. Here’s an example of its figurative use:

I’ve never met the CEO of our company, but our circles of friends imbricate in some interesting ways. All of this overlap between associates means that someday, we could actually have lunch.