Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 28, 2026 is:





bombast • \BAHM-bast\ • noun

Bombast is a formal word that refers to speech or writing that is meant to sound important or impressive but that is not sincere or meaningful.

// You need less bombast and more substance in this speech.

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Examples:

“This is bombast that has not been thought through from a policy perspective. I know that many in the space community find this to be exciting and want to believe the hype behind such an announcement. Mars is exciting. However ... I think we have to ask ourselves whether getting to Mars is worth the moral costs in addition to the economic costs and potential risks to human lives.” — P. J. Blount, quoted in Newsweek, 28 Jan. 2025





Did you know?

Bombast settled softly into English in the mid-late 16th century as a textile term used to refer to cotton or other soft fibrous material used as padding or stuffing (its ultimate source is likely the Middle Persian noun pambak, meaning “cotton”), but within a decade it had extended from literal stuffing to figurative stuffing, referring to speech or writing that is padded with pretentious verbiage. The adjective bombastic, which followed bombast a century later, has been a favorite choice to describe blowhards, boasters, and cockalorums ever since.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 27, 2026 is:





fiduciary • \fuh-DOO-shee-air-ee\ • adjective

Fiduciary is a formal word describing something relating to or involving trust, such as the trust between a customer and a professional.

// The bank's fiduciary obligations are clearly stated in the contract.

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Examples:

"Banks and brokerage firms hold a fiduciary responsibility to protect their customers, including from scams." — Carter Pape, American Banker, 11 Aug. 2025





Did you know?

Fiduciary relationships are often of the financial variety, but the word fiduciary does not, in and of itself, suggest pecuniary ("money-related") matters. Rather, fiduciary applies to any situation in which one person justifiably places confidence and trust in someone else, and seeks that person's help or advice in some matter. The attorney-client relationship is a fiduciary one, for example, because the client trusts the attorney to act in the best interest of the client at all times. Fiduciary can also be used as a noun referring to the person who acts in a fiduciary capacity, and fiduciarily or fiducially can be called upon if you are in need of an adverb. The words are all faithful to their origin: Latin fīdere, which means "to trust."

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 26, 2026 is:





oaf • \OHF\ • noun

Oaf is used to refer to someone as big, clumsy, and slow-witted.

// The main character starts the movie as a tactless, bumbling oaf who is constantly causing offense to everyone around them, but eventually learns a valuable lesson about kindness and courtesy.

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Examples:

“Let me give you a rose. Well, just an imaginary rose. ‘What?’ ‘What’s the occasion?’ ‘What for?’ Because I want to participate in an act of kindness. ... It’s impossible, even for a blustering, clumsy oaf like me, to ignore the positive effects of a rose in hand.” — Anthony Campbell, The Advertiser-Gleam (Guntersville, Alabama), 24 Oct. 2025





Did you know?

In long-ago England, it was believed that elves sometimes secretly exchanged their babies for human babies—a belief that served as an explanation when parents found themselves with a baby that failed to meet expectations or desires: these parents believed that their real baby had been stolen by elves and that a changeling had been left in its place. The label for such a child was auf, or alfe, (meaning “an elf’s or a goblin’s child”), which was later altered to form our present-day oaf. Auf is likely from the Middle English alven or elven, meaning “elf” or “fairy.” Today, the word oaf is no longer associated with babies and is instead applied to anyone who appears especially unintelligent or graceless.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 25, 2026 is:





resplendent • \rih-SPLEN-dunt\ • adjective

Resplendent is a literary word used to describe someone or something as very bright and attractive.

// She looked resplendent in her green evening gown.

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Examples:

“Her box braids were tied in a top bun that poked out of her green and gold headscarf... . Pretty as the braids were, he quietly missed the natural hair they protected. When unbound, her hair was a resplendent halo of vitality. But he knew the halo required a complex, labor-intensive morning and night routine for which she had lost patience.” — Karim Dimechkie, The Uproar: A Novel, 2025





Did you know?

Resplendent shares a root with splendid (meaning, among other things, “shining” or “brilliant”), splendent (“shining” or “glossy”), and splendor (“brightness” or “luster”). Each of these glowing terms gets its shine from the Latin verb splendēre (“to shine”). In the case of resplendent, the prefix re- added to splendēre formed the Latin resplendēre, meaning “to shine back.” Splendent, splendor, and resplendent were first used in English during the 15th century, but splendid didn’t light up our language until almost 200 years later; its earliest known use dates from the early 1600s.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 24, 2026 is:





garner • \GAHR-ner\ • verb

Garner means "to acquire by effort; earn" or "to accumulate or collect."

// The new research findings have garnered the attention of medical experts.

// The group has garnered support from community organizations.

See the entry >





Examples:

"The novel was already a favourite among literary critics but it's sure to garner wider, more mainstream appeal following the Booker Prize win." — Daisy Lester, The Independent (United Kingdom), 11 Nov. 2025





Did you know?

What do you call a building in which grain is stored? These days, English speakers are most likely to call it a granary, but there was a time when garner was also a good candidate. That noun made its way into the language in the 12th century (ultimately from Latin granum, "grain"); the verb garner followed three centuries later with a closely related meaning: "to gather into a granary." Today the verb has largely abandoned its agrarian roots—it usually means "to earn" or "to accumulate." Meanwhile the noun garner is rare in contemporary use. It's found mostly in older literary contexts, such as these lines from Sir Walter Scott's The Bride of Lammermoor: "Or, from the garner-door, on ether borne, / The chaff flies devious from the winnow'd corn."