Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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





fungible • \FUN-juh-bul\ • adjective

Fungible describes things, such as currency, goods, and commodities, that can be exchanged for something else of the same kind or value. In broader usage, fungible can also mean “interchangeable,” as well as “readily changeable to adapt to new situations.”

// A dollar bill is considered fungible because it can easily and acceptably be traded for ten dimes, four quarters, twenty nickels, or one hundred pennies, as well as any other dollar bill.

// Since fruits and vegetables are regarded as fungible in this diet, you are allowed a total of five servings of either or both.

// Some baseball team managers set their batting orders in stone, while others prefer to keep their lineups fungible, to respond to the strengths or weaknesses of different opposing pitchers.

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Examples:

“... bitcoin is regulated differently from securities such as stocks and bonds. It’s treated as a tradable, fungible asset whose value is determined by global supply and demand.” — Becca Bratcher, Forbes, 12 Aug. 2025





Did you know?

Before expectations about the origins of fungible mushroom into mycological fantasy: no, fungible has no relation to the noun fungus and its plural fungi. The fungi in fungible is there because of the Latin verb fungi, meaning “to perform,” ancestor of both fungible and function. Fungible is considerably less familiar than its cousin to most English users, but it pops up like toadstools (sorry) in legal, technological, and economic contexts. Something described as fungible can be exchanged for something else of the same kind. For example, when we say “oil is a fungible commodity,” we mean that when a purchaser is expecting a delivery of oil, any oil of the stipulated quantity and quality will usually do. Another example of something fungible is cash. It doesn't matter what twenty dollar bill you get—it’s still worth the same amount as any other twenty dollar bill. In contrast, something like a work of art (or an NFT, aka a “non-fungible token”) isn’t fungible; a purchaser would expect a specific, identifiable item to be delivered. In broader use, fungible can mean “interchangeable,” or sometimes “readily changeable to adapt to new situations.”

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





bellwether • \BEL-WEH-ther\ • noun

Bellwether usually refers to something that serves as an indicator of trends. It can also refer to someone or something that leads others.

// Event organizers say the concert series is a bellwether, demonstrating that good shows can bring visitors to the town.

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Examples:

“Disney, with its long and illustrious history and dominating cultural influence, is seen as something of a bellwether for the entire entertainment industry …” — Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Feb. 2026





Did you know?

Because it suggests the act of forecasting, one might be inclined to think that bellwether has something to do with weather. But the wether in bellwether has nothing to do with meteorology. Instead, to learn whither wether, we must head to the sheep farm. We usually think of sheep more as followers than leaders, but in a flock one sheep must lead the way. Since long ago, it has been common practice for shepherds to hang a bell around the neck of one sheep in their flock, thereby designating it the lead sheep. This animal was historically called the bellwether, a word formed by a combination of the Middle English words belle (meaning “bell”) and wether, a noun that refers to a male sheep, and today specifically to a castrated male sheep. It eventually followed that bellwether would come to refer to someone who takes initiative or who actively establishes a trend that is taken up by others. This usage first appeared in English in the 15th century and has remained in the language ever since.

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





confabulate • \kun-FAB-yuh-layt\ • verb

Confabulate has two very different meanings. Most of the time, to confabulate is to generate a false memory by filling in memory gaps with fabrications. An older meaning, still in use, is "to talk informally; to chat."

// Patients who have this type of memory disorder are known to confabulate.

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Examples:

"My dearly-loved sister, Marj, died suddenly one month ago at 93. ... No one else will remember the glint that lit Dad's eyes when Mom announced, 'I'm baking a batch of Mrs. Mahoney's cookies.' I can smell that molasses now. ... I miss her, and especially dread the loss of her as a companion in our treasure-trove of joint memories. Who else can set the record straight when I confabulate?" — Larry Beahan, The Buffalo News, 17 Aug. 2025





Did you know?

There are multiple ways to confabulate. If you want to do it the original way, you’ll simply have a chat with someone. People have been confabulating with one another thusly since the early 1600s. Today, however, the word is usually used with the meaning it took on in the early 1900s, and especially in contexts relating to psychology: confabulating in this way means fabricating memories especially to fill memory gaps. In the 2000s, confabulate is taking on a new use. Artificial intelligence that produces false output is also now sometimes said to be confabulating, i.e. hallucinating. The ultimate source of this versatile word is the Latin noun fābula, which refers to a conversation or a story, and is also the root of fabulous, as well as fable.

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





tactile • \TAK-tul\ • adjective

Tactile typically describes something, such as a sensation or experience, relating to the sense of touch. It can also be used specifically to describe something that is perceptible by touch.

// With the introduction of haptics to smartphones, receiving a call from a friend became a much more tactile experience.

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Examples:

“Streaming music services are great and their recommendation engines will serve up endless new tracks for listening. But vinyl records have a tactile appeal.” — Mike Snider, USA Today, 17 Apr. 2026





Did you know?

Tactile has many relatives in English, from the sometimes-synonymous tangible to familiar words like intact, tact, tangent, contingent, and even entire. All of these can be traced back to the Latin verb tangere, meaning “to touch.” Tactile was adopted by English speakers in the early 1600s (possibly by way of the French tactile) from the Latin adjective tactilis (“tangible”). In light of tactile having tangere for a touchstone, its dual senses of “perceptible by touch” and “of, relating to, or being the sense of touch” are perfectly sensible. Since the advent of film, television, and touchscreens, a new sense also appears to be developing, as tactile is increasingly used to suggest that something visual is particularly evocative or suggestive of a certain texture.

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





pundit • \PUN-dit\ • noun

A pundit is someone, especially an expert, who presents their opinions and ideas on a particular subject via the media.

// Grandpa likes watching political pundits spar about the issues of the day on the Sunday morning talk shows.

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Examples:

“… fashion pundits slammed the costumes, with some likening them to fast-fashion copies of the beloved icon’s high-fashion looks.” — Booth Moore, The Wrap, 13 Feb. 2026





Did you know?

It’s no hot take to say that the original pundits were highly learned scholars and teachers in India; it’s just a statement of fact. Our English word pundit comes from the Hindi word paṇḍit, a term of respect (and sometimes an honorary title) for a wise person, especially one with knowledge of philosophy, religion, and law; its ultimate source is the Sanskrit word paṇḍita, meaning “learned.” (Pandit today also increasingly refers specifically to a Hindu priest.) English speakers have used pundit to refer to sages of India since the 1600s, but as is typically done with English, they eventually pushed the word into new semantic territory. By the late 1800s, pundit could also refer to a member of what is sometimes called the commentariat or punditocracy—that is, the collective group of political commentators, financial analysts, and newspaper columnists paid to share their views on various subjects.