Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 17, 2023 is: microcosm \MY-kruh-kah-zum\ noun

Microcosm refers to something (such as a place or an event) that is seen or understood as a small version of something much larger. In the phrase “in microcosm” it describes something in a greatly reduced size or form.

// The game was a microcosm of the entire season, full of ups and downs.

// The model is designed to represent the town in microcosm.

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

Examples:

“… [Jackson Heights] isn't just a microcosm of New York City because of its culinary and cultural diversity, it also reflects the ways New York is rapidly changing.” — Sebastian Modak, BBC, 22 Mar. 2023

Did you know?

Small wonder that the oldest meaning of microcosm in our dictionary is “little world”: the word comes ultimately from the Greek phrase mikros kosmos, meaning “little universe.” That meaning can be applied to many a wee realm, as in “the microcosm of the atom,” but microcosm was originally used by medieval scholars specifically to refer to humans as miniature [embodiments](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embodiment) of the natural universe. Microcosm soon expanded to refer to places (such as neighborhoods or other communities) thought to embody at a small scale characteristics of larger places, and later to anything serving as an apt representation of something bigger—as when [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-C-Clarke), famed author of much fiction and nonfiction set in the [cosmos](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cosmos), noted that “a sunken ship is a microcosm of the civilization that launched it.”