Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - gloss
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 9, 2025 is: gloss \GLAHSS\ verb
To gloss a word or phrase is to provide its meaning, or in other words, to explain or define it.
// Many unfamiliar terms are glossed in the book’s introduction.
[See the entry >](https://bit.ly/42uw58w)
Examples:
“It is revealing that early dictionaries regularly defined equality as ‘conformity,’ or glossed the word, like Noah Webster did in 1806, as ‘likeness, evenness, uniformity.’” — Darrin M. McMahon, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1 Apr. 2024
Did you know?
If you’re the type of word nerd who finds poring over book glossaries to be the [bee’s knees](https://bit.ly/4ic3k6j), we know you’ll get a buzz from this gloss of the verb gloss. To gloss something, such as a word or phrase, is to explain or define it. The noun [gloss](https://bit.ly/3G65dnJ), it follows, refers to (among other things) a brief explanation of a word or expression. And a glossary of course is a collection of textual glosses, or of specialized terms, with their meanings. Both forms of gloss, as well as the word glossary, trace back to the Greek noun glôssa, meaning “tongue,” “language,” or “obscure word requiring explanation.” Another descendent of glôssa, the English noun [glossa](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glossa), refers not to a bee’s knees but to a bee’s tongue, or to the tongue of another insect.