Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

importune

07.31.2019 - By Merriam-WebsterPlay

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 31, 2019 is: importune \im-per-TOON\ verb

1 a : to press or urge with troublesome persistence

b archaic : to request or beg for urgently

2 : [annoy](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/annoy), [trouble](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trouble#h2)

Examples:

"[Sarah] Polk feigned neutrality or loyalty, depending on what suited her, and she successfully importuned Andrew Johnson, the military governor of Tennessee and then American president, to pardon ex-rebels or to grant such favors as being able to sell her cotton untaxed." — Megan Reynolds, Jezebel, 3 June 2019

"For nearly 40 years, Houstonian Jimmy Dunne has importuned Texas lawmakers to ban corporal punishment in Texas public schools, to no avail." — The Houston Chronicle, 18 Mar. 2019

Did you know?

Importune has many synonyms—including beg, entreat, beseech, and implore. [Beg](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beg) suggests earnestness or insistence especially in asking for a favor ("the children begged to stay up late"). [Entreat](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entreat) implies an effort to persuade or to overcome resistance ("she entreated him to change his mind"). [Beseech](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beseech) implies great eagerness or anxiety ("I beseech you to have mercy"), and [implore](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implore) adds to beseech a suggestion of greater urgency or anguished appeal ("he implored her not to leave him"). But it is importune that best conveys irritating doggedness in trying to break down resistance to a request and the accompanying annoyance ("the filmmakers were importuning viewers for contributions"), as it has since Middle English speakers adopted it from Anglo-French.

More episodes from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day