Wiktionary:Word of the day

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
(Redirected from Wiktionary:WOD)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Shortcuts:
WT:WOD
WT:WOTD

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.

Today’s Word of the Day

edit · refresh · view
Word of the day
for May 6
descend v
  1. Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position.
    1. (transitive) To pass from a higher to a lower part of (something, such as a flight of stairs or a slope); to go down along or upon.
    2. (transitive) Of a flight of stairs, a road, etc.: to lead down (a hill, a slope, etc.).
    3. (transitive, archaic) To move (someone or something) from a higher to a lower place or position; to bring or send (someone or something) down.
    4. (intransitive) To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing, falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink.
      1. (astrology) Of a zodiac sign: to move away from the zenith towards the horizon; to sink; also, of a planet: to move to a place where it has less astrological significance.
      2. (astronomy) Of a celestial body: to move away from the zenith towards the horizon; to sink; also, to move towards the south.
      3. (biology, physiology) Of a body part: to move downwards, especially during development of the embryo; specifically, of the testes of a mammal: to move downwards from the abdominal cavity into the scrotum.
      4. (chemistry, obsolete) Of a liquid substance: to distil out from another substance and gather at the bottom of a container; also, to distil a substance to obtain another liquid substance in this manner.
    5. (intransitive) To slope or stretch downwards.
    6. (intransitive, chiefly historical) To alight from a carriage, a horse, etc.; also, to disembark from a vessel; to land.
    7. (intransitive, figurative)
      1. To come or go down, or reduce, in intensity or some other quality.
      2. Of a physical thing (such as a a cloud or storm) or a (generally negative) immaterial thing (such as darkness, gloom, or silence): to settle upon and start to affect a person or place.
      3. In speech or writing: to proceed from one matter to another; especially, to pass from more general or important to specific or less important matters to be considered.
      4. Chiefly followed by into or to: of a situation: to become worse; to decline, to deteriorate.
      5. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to make an attack or incursion, from or as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.
      6. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to arrive suddenly or unexpectedly, especially in a manner that causes disruption or inconvenience.
      7. (reflexive) To come down to a humbler or less fortunate, or a worse or less virtuous, rank or state; to abase or lower oneself; to condescend or stoop to something.
      8. (reflexive, chiefly poetic or religion) Chiefly in the form descend into (or within) oneself: to mentally enter a state of (deep) meditation or thought; to retire.
      9. (mathematics) Of a sequence or series: to proceed from higher to lower values.
      10. (music) To pass from a higher to a lower note or tone; to fall in pitch.
  2. Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing.
    1. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To trace (a lineage) from earlier to later generations.
    2. (intransitive) Of a characteristic: to be transmitted from a parent to a child.
    3. (intransitive, often passive voice) Chiefly followed by from or (obsolete) of: to come down or derive from an ancestor or ancestral stock, or a source; to originate, to stem.
    4. (intransitive, chiefly law) Of property, a right, etc.: to pass down to a generation, a person, etc., by inheritance. [...]
← yesterday | About Word of the Day • Nominate a word • Leave feedback | tomorrow →

RSS feed

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 May and June:

Past Words of the Day

Archive

Alphabetical index


Chronological index

Recycled pages

Frequently asked questions

See Wiktionary:Word of the day/FAQ.

History

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.

Considerable opposition to the now wildly popular 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!

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day&oldid=77419440"