Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 20, 2026 is:





encapsulate • \in-KAP-suh-layt\ • verb

Encapsulate literally means “to enclose in or as if in a capsule,” but the word is more often used figuratively as a synonym of summarize, to talk about showing or expressing a main idea or quality in a brief way.

// Can you encapsulate the speech in a single paragraph?

// The first song encapsulates the mood of the whole album.

// The contaminated material should be encapsulated and removed.

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Examples:

“While choosing a single film to encapsulate a quarter-century of cinema is an impossible task, Bong Joon Ho’s dark comedy certainly belongs in the conversation. A scathing satire that links two families of vastly different means, the film’s stars thinly smile through the indignities and social faux pas before a climactic and inevitable eruption of violence.” — Kevin Slane, Boston.com, 2 Jan. 2026





Did you know?

We’ll keep it brief by encapsulating the history of this word in just a few sentences. Encapsulate and its related noun, capsule, come to English (via French) from capsula, a diminutive form of the Latin noun capsa, meaning “box.” (Capsa also gave English the word case as it refers to a container or box—not to be confused with the case in “just in case,” which is a separate case.) The earliest examples of encapsulate are for its literal use, “to enclose something in a capsule,” and they date to the late 19th century. Its extended meaning, “to give a summary or synopsis of something,” plays on the notion of a capsule being something compact, self-contained, and often easily digestible.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 19, 2026 is:





syllogism • \SIL-uh-jiz-um\ • noun

Syllogism refers to a formal argument in logic that is formed by two statements and a conclusion which must be true if the two statements are true.

// An example of a syllogism is “All men are mortal; no gods are mortal; therefore no men are gods.”

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Examples:

“The Dallas area was a hotbed of competitive debate, and, at first, the oratorical polish of [Rebecca F.] Kuang’s teammates was intimidating. She spent months being coached on the art of the syllogism, a kind of logical argument in which one deduces a conclusion from a set of premises. ‘The idea that you could take something that seemed up to personal charisma or rhetorical choice and map it to this very rigid, argumentative structure was mind-blowing,’ she said.” — Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025





Did you know?

For those trained in formal argument, the syllogism is a classical form of deduction, specifically an argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion. One example is the inference that “kindness is praiseworthy” from the premises “every virtue is praiseworthy” and “kindness is a virtue.” Syllogism came to English through Anglo-French from the Latin noun syllogismus, which in turn can be traced back to the Greek verb syllogizesthai, which combines logizesthai (meaning “to calculate,” and coming from logos, meaning “word” or “reckoning”) with syl-, which comes from syn-, meaning “with” or “together.”

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 18, 2026 is:





Goldilocks • \GOHL-dee-lahks\ • adjective

Goldilocks describes something that has or produces an optimal balance usually between two extremes. In astronomy, it specifically designates an area of planetary orbit neither too hot nor too cold to support life.

// The couple, undecided between country and city living, took the Goldilocks option and moved to a bustling college town surrounded by nature.

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Examples:

"It's a well-known fact that the time between 3 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon is a liminal space. ... It's too late for lunch, too early for dinner. But it's the Goldilocks hour for a little treat." — Nikita Richardson, The New York Times, 8 May 2025





Did you know?

English has always drawn inspiration from fables and fairy tales, stories bursting with metaphors that help users get their verbiage just right: one may fall down a rabbit hole (thank you, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), cry wolf (we see you, Aesop's Fables), or hope one day to meet one's Prince Charming (brava, Cinderella). The adjective Goldilocks is borrowed, of course, from Goldilocks and the Three Bears, a perennial favorite in which a little girl so-named for her golden hair finds the perfect balance between hot and cold, soft and hard, small and large—all in the home of unknowing strangers. Since the mid-1960s, English speakers have applied Goldilocks to all things regarded as perfectly balanced or happily medium. The word has specific applications in astronomy, with the phrase "Goldilocks zone" designating an area of planetary orbit in which temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold to support life.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 17, 2026 is:





abdicate • \AB-dih-kayt\ • verb

Abdicate usually means “to renounce a position of power, such as a throne, high office, dignity, or function.” It can also mean “to fail to do what is required by (a duty or responsibility).”

// I know many challenges lie ahead, but I take this role on willingly, and will not abdicate my responsibility.

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Examples:

“The story revolves around a plan by dark forces to kidnap the royal heirs and force the prince to abdicate his throne to an evil wizard.” — Screen Daily, 5 Jan. 2026





Did you know?

Give it up for abdicate, a word powerful enough to undo a coronation. If you need a term to describe formally throwing in the towel, this one should prove—perhaps ironically—a royal success. Coming from the Latin verb abdicāre, “to resign, renounce, withdraw,” (which traces back to the verb dīcere, meaning “to speak, state”), abdicate is used primarily for those who give up sovereign power or who evade a very serious responsibility. English has dīcere to thank for a variety of other words, among them dictate, contradict, prediction, and the crown jewel of them all: dictionary.

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





prerogative • \prih-RAH-guh-tiv\ • noun

Prerogative means "right or privilege," and especially refers to a special right or privilege that some people have.

// If you'd rather sell the tickets than use them, that's your prerogative.

// Education was once only the prerogative of the wealthy.

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Examples:

"Successfully arguing an insanity defense, the prerogative of any defendant, is a difficult hurdle." — Cristóbal Reyes, The Orlando Sentinel, 8 Jan. 2026





Did you know?

In ancient Rome, voting at legal assemblies was done by group, with the majority in a group determining the vote. The word for the group chosen to vote first on an issue was praerogātīva, a noun rooted in the Latin verb rogāre, "to ask; to ask an assembly for a decision." When English adopted prerogative from Latin, via Anglo-French, in the 15th century, it took only the idea of the privilege the ancient Roman voting group enjoyed; the English word referred then, as it also does now, to an exclusive or special right, power, or privilege. Often such a prerogative is tied to an office, official body, or nation, but as Bobby Brown reminded us in his 1988 song "My Prerogative," the right to live as you like can also be referred to as a prerogative.