Word of the Day
: July 11, 2025rescind
playWhat It Means
To rescind something, such as a law, contract, agreement, etc., is to end it officially. Rescind can also mean “to take back; to cancel.”
// Given the appeal court’s recent decision, it is likely that the law will be rescinded.
// The company later rescinded its offer.
rescind in Context
“A state environmental oversight board voted unanimously to rescind a controversial proposal that would have permitted California municipal landfills to accept contaminated soil that is currently required to be dumped at sites specifically designated and approved for hazardous waste.” — Tony Briscoe, The Los Angeles Times, 16 May 2025
Did You Know?
Rescind and the lesser-known words exscind and prescind all come from the Latin verb scindere, which means “to split, cleave, separate.” Rescind was adapted from its Latin predecessor rescindere in the 16th century, and prescind (from praescindere) and exscind (from exscindere) followed in the next century. Exscind means “to cut off” or “to excise,” and prescind means “to withdraw one’s attention,” but of the three borrowings, only rescind established itself as a common English term. Today, rescind is most often heard in contexts having to do with the withdrawal of an offer, award, or privilege, or with invalidation of a law or policy.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Quiz
Fill in the blanks to complete a word that can mean “cancel, eliminate”: s _ r _ _.
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