Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day - modicum
overview
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 8, 2025 is: modicum \MAH-dih-kum\ noun
Modicum is a formal word that means “a small amount.” It is almost always used with of.
// The band enjoyed a modicum of success in the early 2010s before becoming an international sensation.
[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/modicum)
Examples:
“Imagine, for example, that the gods decided to bestow upon [Sisyphus](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sisyphus) a modicum of mercy. The rock, the hill, the never-ending, pointless labor all remained nonnegotiable as far as the gods were concerned, but the mercy of the gods was to change Sisyphus’s attitude to these things. … He is never happier than when rolling large boulders up steep hills, and the gods have offered him the eternal fulfillment of this strange desire.” — Mark Rowlands, The Word of Dog: What Our Canine Companions Can Teach Us About Living a Good Life, 2024
Did you know?
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the English language has more than a modicum of [words referring to a small amount of something](https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/modicum-iota-soupcon-small-things)—it has oodles, from [smidgen](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/smidgen) to [soupçon](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soupcon). But while modicum can be applied to countable or physical things (like words or salt) it is almost always applied instead to abstract concepts like respect, success, control, hope, dignity, or privacy. Modicum traces back to the Latin noun modus, meaning “measure,” which just so happens to be the ancestor of more than a modicum of English words, from [moderate](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moderate) and [modify](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/modify) to [mold](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mold) and [commode](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commode).