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Wiktionary’s Word of the Day features interesting words, terms, and phrases on the Main Page. For Words of the Day in languages other than English, see Foreign Word of the Day. At present, Sgconlaw (talk • contribs) is in charge of the process, setting dates for the words, and sprinkling the future WOTDs with magic.

Today’s Word of the Day

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Word of the day
for December 15
mothball v (transitive)
  1. To store (clothing, etc.) with mothballs (noun sense 1).
  2. (figurative, chiefly passive voice)
    1. To stop using (something), and often to put it in storage; specifically, while keeping it in good condition so it can be used in the future.
    2. To stop work on (a plan, project, etc.) for the time being; to postpone, to shelve.

mothball n

  1. (chiefly in the plural) A small ball of chemical pesticide (originally camphor and now typically naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene) and deodorant placed in or around clothing and other articles to deter moth larvae which may damage them.
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Tomorrow’s Word of the Day

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Word of the day
for December 16
sensibility n
  1. (uncountable) The ability to feel, perceive, or sense; responsiveness to sensory stimuli; sensitivity; also, the degree to which someone or something (especially a sensory organ or tissue) is able to respond to sensory stimuli.
  2. (uncountable) The quality of being easily affected by external forces or stimuli; also, of a measuring instrument: the quality of being able to detect small changes in the environment.
  3. (uncountable) Keen sensitivity to matters of creative expression or feeling; artistic or emotional awareness.
    1. (specifically, archaic) Affected or excessive artistic or emotional awareness; the fact or quality of being overemotional; overemotionality.
  4. (uncountable, archaic)
    1. Awareness; also, understanding.
    2. The capacity of something to be perceived by the senses; perceptibility.
    3. (botany) Of a plant or one of its parts: the ability to move in response to a stimulus.
  6. (uncountable, philosophy) The ability to perceive or sense as opposed to the ability to understand; also, in the philosophy of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804): emotion or feeling as opposed to the will.
  7. (countable, obsolete)
    1. An emotional sense or understanding of something.
    2. A sign or token of appreciation or gratitude.

The English novelist Jane Austen was born on this day 250 years ago in 1775. Her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published in 1811.

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You can subscribe to syndication feeds for Word of the Day through RSS or Atom.

To have the current Word of the Day delivered fresh to your electronic mailbox daily, subscribe to the Wikimedia Daily Article Mailing List. Among other things, you’ll also receive the Quote of the Day from Wikiquote and the Featured Article of the Day from Wikipedia.

Future Words of the Day

You can nominate a term as a future Word of the Day at:

You can also check out the terms that are already in the queue to be a Word of the Day in December and January:

Past Words of the Day

Archive

Alphabetical index


Chronological index

Recycled pages

Frequently asked questions

See Wiktionary:Word of the day/FAQ.

History

The first ever Word of the Day was dog, added 14 December 2002, two days after the founding of Wiktionary. Although there were several early attempts to begin a Word of the Day on Wiktionary, the first official WOTD was posted on 10 January 2006 by Iamnotanorange.

Considerable opposition to the WOTD was raised, as it was felt that one full year’s supply of terms should be prepared before it appeared on the Main Page. That took over a year to happen.

In 2007, the RSS feed was created, then an alternate feed (no longer operational) was later added. In July and August 2007, the WOTD was added to the Wikimedia Daily Article Mailing List.

Also in early 2007, the entries started being marked with {{was wotd}} to prevent duplicates, and an alphabetic index (which has since failed RFD) was added.

No voting process currently exists for deciding the terms that get featured as WOTD. The volunteers managing it use a set of criteria to ensure adequate variety for any given month’s batch of WOTDs. For details, please see “Wiktionary:Word of the day/Nominations”. Before entries finally make it into the spotlight, they are vetted and tidied up to ensure they are properly formatted and referenced, have suitable quotations, and so on. Only then will they be awesome enough to show to the world!

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