Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 9, 2024 is: ominous  \AH-muh-nus\ adjective  
Something described as ominous hints or suggests that something bad is coming or is going to happen. 

// Our fears about the picnic being cancelled were heightened by the sight of dark, ominous clouds appearing over the horizon.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ominous)  
  
Examples:
  
"The trailer opens with ominous signs of seismograph activity picking up as desert sands start to shift and a giant ape hand bursts out from below. 'For most of human civilization, we believed that life could only exist on the surface of our planet,' Andrews says in a voiceover. 'What else were we wrong about?'" — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica.com, 4 Dec. 2023  
  
Did you know?  
   
Ominous didn't always mean that something bad was about to happen. If you look closely, you can see the [omen](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/omen) in ominous, which gave it the original meaning of "being a sign of events to come"—whether good or bad. It ultimately comes from the Latin word omen, which is both an ancestor and a synonym of our omen. Today, however, ominous suggests a menacing or threatening aspect. Its synonyms [portentous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/portentous) and [fateful](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fateful) are used similarly, but ominous is the most menacing of the three. It implies an alarming quality that foreshadows evil or disaster. So when [something wicked this way comes](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Macbeth-by-Shakespeare), count on ominous to deliver the news [aforehand](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aforehand).

ominous

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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 2, 2024 is: incidence  \IN-suh-dunss\ noun  
Incidence refers to the number of times something happens or develops—in other words, the rate at which something occurs.

// The neighborhood boasts excellent schools and a low incidence of crime.

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

  
  
Examples:
  
"Pickleball, which is played with a perforated plastic ball and wooden paddles on a badminton-sized court, is the fastest growing sport in the U.S., with the number of players rising from 4.8 million in 2021 to 8.9 million in 2023, according to USA Pickleball. … A study co-authored by [Dr. Eric] Bowman that has not yet been published finds that between 2017 and 2022, the incidence of pickleball-related injuries rose faster than the growth of the sport’s popularity." — Linda Carroll, NBC News, 12 Feb. 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
The words [incident](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incident), incidence, and [instance](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/instance) may seem similar (and, in fact, incident and incidence are closely related), but they are applied in different ways. In current use, incidence usually means "rate of occurrence" and is often qualified in some way ("a high incidence of bear sightings"). Incident usually refers to a particular event, often something unusual or unpleasant ("many such incidents go unreported"). Instance suggests a particular occurrence that is offered as an example ("another instance of a simple change bringing real improvement"); it can also be synonymous with case ("many instances/cases in which the wrong form was submitted"). The plural incidences sometimes occurs in such contexts as "several recent incidences of bear sightings," but this use is often criticized as incorrect.

incidence

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2024 is: svelte  \SVELT\ adjective  
Someone described as svelte is considered slender or thin in an attractive or graceful way. Svelte can also be used to describe something sleek, such as a vehicle or an article of clothing.

// The svelte dancer seemed to float across the stage.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/svelte)  
  
  
Examples:
  
“There’s more plastic than some would prefer, but it’s otherwise an attractive, functional cockpit with comfy seats and room enough for three adults in the rear, as long as all are relatively svelte.” — Josh Max, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
In Death on the Rocks, a 2013 mystery novel by Deryn Lake, the hero John Rawlings is described as having “svelte eyebrows” (he raises them also in 1995’s Death at the Beggar’s Opera). Lake’s [oeuvre](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oeuvre) notwithstanding, svelte is not an adjective commonly applied to eyebrows, though it’s perfectly appropriate to do so—one of the word’s meanings is “sleek,” and it is often used to describe such disparate things as gowns and sports cars having clean lines. But “svelte eyebrows” also makes etymological sense; svelte came to English (by way of French) from the Italian adjective svelto, which itself comes from the verb svellere, meaning “to pluck out.” Since its debut in English in the early 19th century, however, svelte has more often been used with its original meaning to describe a person’s body—not just the tufts of hair above their eyes—as slender, graceful, or [lithe](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lithe).

svelte

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 31, 2024 is: foist  \FOIST\ verb  
Foist, which is almost always used with on or upon, is used when someone forces another person to accept something, usually something that is not good or is not wanted. Foist can also mean “to pass off as genuine or worthy.”

// I don’t want to foist anything on you, but if you like this old quilt you’re welcome to have it.

// Faulty parts have been foisted on unwitting car owners.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foist)  
  
Examples:
  
“Since the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act during the New Deal era, employers have had to pay most of their workers for 40 hours of work even when business was slow. That was just the cost of doing business, a risk capitalists bore in exchange for the upside potential of profit. Now, however, employers foist that risk onto their lowest-paid workers: Part-time employees, not shareholders, have to pay the price when sale volumes fluctuate.” — Adelle Waldman, The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
That the word foist is commonly used today to mean “to force another to accept by stealth or deceit” makes sense given its original—now obsolete—use in talking about a bit of literal [sleight of hand](https://bit.ly/4b1ost2). When it first rolled into English in the mid-1500s, foist was all about dice, dice, baby, referring to [palming](https://bit.ly/3JHlk9V)—that is, concealing in one’s hand a phony die so as to secretly introduce it into a game at a convenient time. The action involved in this cheating tactic reflects the etymology of foist: the word is believed to have come from the obsolete Dutch verb vuisten, meaning “to take into one’s hand.” Vuisten in turn comes from vuyst, the Middle Dutch word for “fist,” which itself is distantly related to the Old English ancestor of [fist](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fist). By the late 16th century, foist was being used in English to mean “to insert surreptitiously,” and it quickly acquired the “force to accept” meaning that is most familiar today.

foist

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2024 is: dynasty  \DYE-nuh-stee\ noun  
Dynasty refers to a group (such as a team, family, etc.) that is very powerful or successful for a long period of time. It is also often used for a family of rulers who rule over a country for a long period of time, as well as the period of time when a particular dynasty is in power.

// The team’s draft picks reflected the ownership’s strategy of building a long-term football dynasty. 

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dynasty)
  
  
Examples:
  
“The Vanderberg dynasty was in steel, railroads and textiles as well as [munitions](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/munition). Their money was so old that it underlay the United States like geology. Before there had been a United States, in fact, there had been Vanderbergs and they had already been rich.” — Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz: A Novel, 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
Dynasty has had quite the run in English. For over 600 years it’s been used to refer to a ruling family that maintains power generation after generation. At the time dynasty was first used in English, for example, England was in the midst of rule by the [Plantagenet](https://www.britannica.com/topic/house-of-Plantagenet) dynasty, whose line of [succession](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/succession) provided 14 kings, from [Henry II](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-II-king-of-England) to [Richard III](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-III-king-of-England). Around the beginning of the 19th century, the word developed the figurative sense “a group or family that dominates a particular field for generations.” Nowadays, this sense of dynasty is often applied to sports franchises that have prolonged runs of successful seasons, [divine right](https://bit.ly/3vD6az0) not required. Technically, any team is capable of becoming this type of dynasty, including not only [Kings](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sacramento-Kings) and [Royals](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kansas-City-Royals), but also [Ducks](https://www.britannica.com/sports/Anaheim-Ducks).

dynasty

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 29, 2024 is: obstreperous  \ub-STREP-uh-rus\ adjective  
Obstreperous is a formal word that describes people or things that stubbornly resist control; in this use it’s a synonym of [unruly](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unruly). A person or thing described as obstreperous may also be defiantly or aggressively noisy. 

// The moment the paper airplane landed, the instructor addressed the unruly class, telling them in the harshest tone that obstreperous conduct would not be tolerated. 

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obstreperous)
  
  
Examples:
  
“In the 1887 essay ‘Silent People as Misjudged by the Noisy,’ an Atlantic contributor proposed an economical approach to talking: ‘As we get on in life past the period of obstreperous youth, we incline to talk less and write less, especially on the topics which we have most at heart,’ the writer noted. ‘We are beginning to realize the uselessness of perpetually talking … If there is a thing to be said, we prefer to wait and say it only when and where it will hit something or somebody.’” — Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic, 17 Feb. 2024  
  
Did you know?  
   
Imagine walking a dog down a sidewalk in a neighborhood full of delicious smells and other temptations—it’s easy to picture your pooch barking and straining at the leash to chase a squirrel, or dragging you toward something enticingly (to them) stinky, right? But can you imagine saying to your [doggo](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doggo) in response, “Quit being so obstreperous!” Probably not. Obstreperous has a much more formal flair than words, such as stubborn or unruly, used to describe similar behavior. As such it’s unlikely to be used in casual speech or contexts like the one above. The word comes from a combination of the handy Latin prefix ob- (meaning “against”) and strepere, a verb meaning “to make a noise”; someone who is obstreperous can be thought of as literally making noise to rebel against something, much like a protesting crowd or an unruly child. Strepere has made little noise in the English lexicon, however; in addition to obstreperous it seems only to have contributed to the rarely encountered [strepitous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strepitous) and its synonym strepitant, which mean “characterized or accompanied by much noise”—that is, “noisy.”

ominous

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