Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 16, 2026 is:

kiki • \KEE-kee\  • noun

Kiki is a slang term used for an informal gathering among close friends, especially to share lively gossip or frank conversation. It can also refer more broadly to gossipy conversation. Kiki is especially used in and associated with LGBTQ+ and Black communities.

// The performers had a kiki backstage before the show.

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Examples:

“The year 2024 will long be remembered in pop culture as the year of #bratsummer, christened, of course, by the early-June release of an instantly-iconic pop album, Charli XCX’s Brat. It was the cultural equivalent of the hippies’ summer of love in 1967, but for the girls and gays a singular moment in time when every day offered the chance of a kiki and every night flirted with throwing a rave.” — Vanessa Quilantan, The Dallas Observer, 26 Aug. 2025

Did you know?

Let’s chitchat about the word kiki, a fun word for a fun, gossipy gathering. While its exact origins are unclear, we know that kiki has roots in the ballroom community, a primarily Black and Latino drag subculture that spread in US cities especially in the 1980s–90s. In the early 2000s, a movement emerged within ball culture that was often referred to as the kiki scene. This involved support groups and social services for LGBTQ+ youth, and provided opportunities to socialize, including in the form of so-called kiki balls, or festive, party-like drag performances. This scene was notably captured in the 2016 documentary Kiki, popularly considered a sequel to 1990’s Paris is Burning. Kiki is also used as a verb meaning “to share lively gossip or frank conversation”—in other words, “to have a kiki.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 15, 2026 is:

tortuous • \TOR-chuh-wus\  • adjective

Tortuous describes something that has many literal or figurative twists and turns.

// The tortuous mountain path rewards climbers with a stunning view of the town below.

// Getting approval for a project of this magnitude is a tortuous process.

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Examples:

“Christopher Nolan’s latest epic is an adaptation of the ancient Greek epic poem, The Odyssey. ... Homer’s poem is centered on Greek hero King Odysseus ... and his tortuous, 10-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.” — Lexy Perez, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Jan. 2026

Did you know?

Be careful not to confuse tortuous with torturous. These two words are relatives—both ultimately come from the Latin verb torquēre, which means “to twist,” “to wind,” or “to wrench”—but tortuous means “winding” or “crooked,” whereas torturous means “painfully unpleasant.” (Its oldest meaning is “causing torture.”) Something tortuous, such as a twisting mountain road, might also be torturous (if, for example, you have to ride up that road on a bicycle), but that doesn’t make these words synonyms. The twists and turns that mark a tortuous thing can be literal (“a tortuous path” or “a tortuous river”) or figurative (“a tortuous argument” or “a tortuous explanation”), but you should veer away from using the term if no implication of winding or crookedness is present.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 14, 2026 is:

imbroglio • \im-BROHL-yoh\  • noun

Imbroglio is a formal word that refers to a complex dispute or argument.

// Much of the sisters’ text thread involves the latest imbroglios on their favorite reality show—who’s mad at who for what, and why.

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Examples:

“A tangled web of interpersonal feuds, played out in letters to the local newspaper, in social media posts and via legal filings in county court, has left the town with no clear path out of a situation that’s not covered by state law. The imbroglio has even reached the state Capitol ...” — Seth Klamann and Sam Tabachnik, The Denver Post, 8 Mar. 2026

Did you know?

Ever noticed how an imbroglio embroils people in controversy? There’s a reason for that—an etymological one, anyway. Both the noun imbroglio (referring to, among other things, a scandal or bitter argument) and verb embroil (“to involve in conflicts or difficulties”) come from the Middle French word embrouiller, a combination of the prefix en- and brouiller, meaning “to jumble,” though they took slightly different paths. Embroil’s was direct, passing from Middle French through French and into English around the turn of the 16th century. Italians altered embrouiller to form imbrogliare, meaning “to entangle,” which spawned the noun imbroglio that English speakers embraced in the mid-18th century. English imbroglio first referred to a confused mass, and later expanded to cover confusing social situations such as complicated disputes, misunderstandings, and scandals.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 13, 2026 is:

rectify • \REK-tuh-fye\  • verb

Rectify is a formal word meaning “to correct (something that is wrong).”

// We were given the wrong room key, but the hotel management quickly rectified the situation.

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Examples:

“NYC contributes roughly 54.5% of state revenue but receives only 40.5% back. Our budget proposals work to rectify this unsustainable imbalance and restore the funding our city deserves.” — Cordell Cleare, The New York Daily News, 18 Mar. 2026

Did you know?

When you rectify something, you correct an error or make things right, which is fitting because rectify and correct both ultimately trace back to the Latin word regere, meaning “to lead straight,” “to direct,” or “to rule.” Rectify has had its “to set right” meaning since the early 16th century, but the word has over the years accrued various other meanings as well, including the specialized uses “to purify especially by repeated or fractional distillation” (as in “rectified alcohol”), “to make (an alternating current) unidirectional,” and several medical applications having to do with healing of one kind or another. Regere plays a part in the histories of several familiar English words, in addition to those mentioned above; the many relatives of rectify include direct, resurrection, and regimen.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 12, 2026 is:

catercorner • \KAT-ee-kor-ner\  • adverb or adjective

Catercorner is used to describe two things that are located across from each other on opposite corners. It is a less common variant of kitty-corner.

// The store is catercorner from the park, making it the perfect location to grab snacks for our picnic.

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Examples:

“Positioned on balconies catercorner from each other, Tom Brady completed a pass across Bourbon Street to Rob Gronkowski, proving they’ve still got it. Gronk promptly spiked the football on the fan-filled street below.” — Rebecca Cohen and Greg Rosenstein, NBC News, 9 Feb. 2025

Did you know?

Catercorner gets its first element from the Middle French noun quatre, meaning “four,” which English speakers modified to cater and applied to the four-dotted side of a die—a side important in several winning combinations in dice games. Perhaps because the four spots on a die can suggest an X, cater eventually came to be used dialectically as a verb meaning “to place, move, or cut across diagonally”; cater was later combined with corner to form catercorner to describe things positioned diagonally from each other. (In one early usage from an 1825 magazine article, the author marvels at an “ancient Roman fresco painting, in which a luxurious table is represented as groaning under (among other choice dishes …) four peacocks, with their tails set, cater-corner!”) Eventually the variants kitty-corner and catty-corner, which are now the more common forms, developed. Despite all appearances, these terms bear no etymological relation to our feline friends.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 11, 2026 is:

paragon • \PAIR-uh-gahn\  • noun

Paragon is a formal word that refers to a person or thing that is perfect or excellent in some way and should be considered a model or example to be copied.

// In Arthurian legend, Sir Galahad is depicted as a paragon of virtue.

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Examples:

"With a bar staff locally renowned for its cocktails, curated French cuisine, an extensive champagne menu and immaculately stylish atmosphere ... Claude is the local paragon of elegance." — Elijah Decious, The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), 18 Feb. 2026

Did you know?

Paragon comes from the Old Italian word paragone, which literally means "touchstone." A touchstone is a black stone that was formerly used to judge the purity of gold or silver. The metal was rubbed on the stone and the color of the streak it left indicated its quality. In modern English, both touchstone and paragon have come to signify a standard against which something should be judged. Ultimately, paragon comes from the Greek verb parakonan, meaning "to sharpen," from the prefix para- ("alongside of") and akonē, meaning "whetstone."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 10, 2026 is:

halcyon • \HAL-see-un\  • adjective

Halcyon is most often used to describe a happy and successful time in the past that is remembered as being better than today. It can also mean “calm, peaceful” or “prosperous, affluent.”

// She does not regret retiring, but looks back fondly on the halcyon years of her career.

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Examples:

“The first half of Alice Winn’s bestselling In Memoriam is set at Preshute, an English boys’ boarding school in the early twentieth century. It is here, in the idyllic countryside, where the boys discuss poetry and get up to all sorts of high-jinks and japes, and where two students, Gaunt and Ellwood, fall in love. Then the boys are ejected into the horror and abyss of WWI trenches. When they are reunited, mentally and physically scarred, Preshute is but a dream and their adolescent love, a halcyon place that can only be returned to in memory.” — Madeleine Dunnigan, LitHub.com, 16 Jan. 2026

Did you know?

Halcyon has drifted along contentedly in English for centuries, but it hatched from a tumultuous story. According to Greek mythology, Alkyone, the daughter of the god of the winds, became so distraught over her husband Ceyx’s death at sea that she threw herself into the ocean to join him. The gods were moved by the couple’s love, and took pity on them by turning them into halcyon birds, a bird identified with the kingfisher. (Kingfishers are known for plunging into water after prey.) According to the legend, the birds built their nests on the sea, which so charmed Alkyone’s father that he created a period of unusual calm that lasted until the birds’ eggs hatched. Our word halcyon reflects the story in multiple ways. When halcyon was first used in English in the 14th century it was as a noun referring to the mythical bird, and later to actual kingfishers as well. Adjective use developed in the 16th century and now most often evokes those calm waters: the word typically describes an idyllic time in the past.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 9, 2026 is:

gallivant • \GAL-uh-vant\  • verb

To gallivant is to go or travel to many different places for pleasure. Gallivant is a somewhat informal word that is often applied when the user of the word does not approve of such pleasurable traveling.

// They’ve been gallivanting all over town instead of studying for their finals.

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Examples:

“These days, she can be found gallivanting around the Upper West Side, catching the latest Broadway shows and occasionally hopping onstage to belt show tunes with the waitstaff at her beloved Times Square restaurant, where she remains hands-on with the business.” — McKenzie Beard, The New York Post, 18 Feb. 2026

Did you know?

Back in the 14th century, gallant, a noun borrowed from the French word galant, referred to a fashionable young man. By the middle of the next century, it was being used more specifically to refer to such a man who was attentive to, and had a fondness for, the company of women. In the late 17th century, this “ladies’ man” sense gave rise to the verb gallant to describe the process a suitor used to win a lady’s heart, and “gallanting” became synonymous with “courting.” It’s this verb gallant that is the likely source of gallivant, which originally meant “to act as a gallant” or “to go about usually ostentatiously or indiscreetly with members of the opposite sex.” Today, however, gallivant is more likely to describe pleasurable wandering than romancing.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 8, 2026 is:

wistful • \WIST-ful\  • adjective

To be wistful is to have sad thoughts and feelings about something that you want to have or do, and especially about something that made you happy in the past. Wistful can also describe something, such as a smile or sigh, that shows or communicates such feelings.

// As the car pulled away, Lea cast one last wistful glance at the house where she'd spent so many happy years.

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Examples:

"Postcards have always been an object of fascination for me. I remember flipping through photo albums as a young girl and coming across those sent to my parents, from people I had never met. When I asked who these people were, I would hear wistful stories." — Minoli Wijetunga, The Guardian (London), 10 Jan. 2026

Did you know?

We see you there, dear reader, gazing silently up at the moon, heart aching to know the history of wistful, as if it could be divined on the lunar surface. And we'd like to ease your melancholy by telling you that the knowledge you seek—nay, pine for—is closer at hand. The word wistful comes from wistly, a now-obsolete word meaning "intently," and the similar-sounding wishful. Wistly, in turn, likely comes from whist, an old term meaning "silent." What's more certain is that our modern wistful is a great word to describe someone full of pensive yearning, or something inspiring such yearning.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2026 is:

dudgeon • \DUJ-un\  • noun

Dudgeon is typically used in the phrase “in high dudgeon” to describe someone who is angry and offended by something they perceive to be unfair or wrong.

// The customer stormed out of the store in high dudgeon after the manager refused to give them a refund for their purchase.

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Examples:

“She was in high dudgeon because her expensive lunch was punctuated by noise from a child ‘a real menace’ whose parents, she said, appeared oblivious to the noise while staff … played with and entertained the tot. If the parents could afford the bill for a place like that, they could afford a babysitter, she snipped.” — Rachel Moore, The Eastern Daily Press (Norwich, England), 6 Feb. 2026

Did you know?

Dudgeon is today most often used in the phrase “in high dudgeon” to describe someone in a fit of pique, or more colloquially, in a snit: they are angry and offended because of something they perceive as unfair or wrong. The word has been a part of the English language since at least the late 1500s, but its origins are a mystery. Conjectures connecting dudgeon to a Welsh word, dygen, meaning “malice,” have no basis. Also, there does not appear to be any connection to an even older dudgeon—a term once used for a dagger or a kind of wood out of which dagger handles were made.