Word of the Day

: July 23, 2023

corollary

noun KOR-uh-lair-ee

What It Means

Corollary is a formal word that usually refers to something that naturally follows or results from another thing. It can also be applied to a thing that incidentally or naturally accompanies or parallels something else. In logic, it refers to a proposition inferred immediately from a proved proposition.

// Two corollaries of investment in parks and other green spaces are cleaner air and lower temperatures in neighboring communities.

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corollary in Context

“Our right to speak, much less to parent, should not be contingent on our ability to gain political control. The much better course for our democracy is to uphold a legal corollary to the golden rule: Defend the rights of others that you would like to exercise yourself. It doesn’t end the culture war. We’ll still clash over contentious issues. But maintaining a bedrock defense of civil liberties lowers the stakes.” —David French, The New York Times, 12 Mar. 2023

Did You Know?

Not ones to rest on our laurels here in the Word of the Day hothouse, today we are pleased to offer some flowery prose on the history of the word corollary—not because it is rhetorically elegant (though it may be) but because its history is related to flowers. Indeed, the seed of corollary was planted initially by the Latin noun corōlla meaning “small wreath of flowers,” which later bloomed into another Latin noun, corōllārium, referring to a garland given as a reward as well as to a gratuity or an unsolicited payment. Just as one tips their server at the conclusion of a meal, you might think of a modern-day corollary as something that naturally follows or accompanies something else in natural course. The formality of corollary is thanks to its formal roots: the word first figured in logical proofs as a term for a proposition that can be inferred immediately from something that's just been proved—the corollary follows logically as a result of the statement before it.