Media:English Navigation:English

Please enter your search term

Sign In

Queue
Favorites
Cloud TV
FreeAir.tv Channels
My Library
A-la-carte Subscriptions
History
My Account
My Devices
Earn Cash

Help

International TV
Films
Packages
Video
Audio
Radio
Kids

Please enter value.

Academy

Audio

Language

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Most Popular

Most Popular
Most Recent
Most Viewed
Oldest
Release Order

Arts
Education Technology
Everything Else
Higher Education
History
K-12
Language
Math
Primary
Science
Secondary
Training

When it comes to verb forms, it's always the same problem: lack of speed. You understand the tense, and when you write, you can eventually put it together. But when you speak, you stumble, hesitate, have to stop to think and "write it" in your head... It's very frustrating. These French Verb Drills are designed to help you memorize the verb forms, and the way they are pronounced in French today. The aim is not to explain the tenses, nor to help you figure out how to construct them, but to help you gain speed when it comes to saying that verb form. Make sure you first listen to the intro to make the best use of these verb drills. Transcripts, additionnal drills, and more audio material are available at FrenchToday.com (by the author of LearnFrenchInBoston.com) French Verb Drills (French Today)
Discovering the history of fashion. Brought to you by RCC 106.7 FM. Fashion Fads
Build your vocabulary with Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day! Each day a Merriam-Webster editor offers insight into a fascinating new word -- explaining its meaning, current use, and little-known details about its origin. Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Very Vocabulary is one of the first and most famous Educational Podcasts available on iTunes. With tens of thousands of listeners it may be the biggest Amateur Non-Profit Podcast out there. Learn some new words and get your nerd on with Adam Santana and the subtle humor of his lo-fi educational podcast. Visit ReadPeace.com for other links to educational websites. Very Vocabulary: Learn English Words Podcast
Hören Sie spannende Audiofeatures zu verschiedenen Themen aus dem deutschen (Sprach-)Alltag. Deutsche im Alltag - Alltagsdeutsch | Deutsch Lernen | Deutsche Welle DW-WORLD.DE | Deutsche Welle
Die Sprachbar ist ein Angebot, das Sie in Geheimnisse und Besonderheiten der deutschen Sprache einführt. Freuen Sie sich auf Erklärungen zu Schlagzeilen, Literaturzitaten, Redewendungen oder zur Grammatik. Sprachbar | Deutsch Lernen | Deutsche Welle DW-WORLD.DE | Deutsche Welle
German for advanced learners: Join Andreas and his mysterious ex on their exciting adventures. Grammar: Passive, subordinate clauses, reflexive verbs, subjunctive. [English Version] Deutsch - warum nicht? Series 4 | Learning German | Deutsche Welle DW-WORLD.DE | Deutsche Welle

Quick and Dirty Tips creates and distributes digital content that offers short, actionable advice from friendly and informed authorities that will help you succeed at work and in life. QuickAndDirtyTips.com
LanguagePod101.com offers Language Learning Podcasts in Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. JapanesePod101.com Language Learning with Free Podcasts
Contemporary drama in a rural setting from the world's longest running radio soap opera. BBC Radio 4
Learn a language with the Radio Lingua Network: download our free audio lessons, or take your learning to the next stage with our learning materials. Radio Lingua Network Radio Lingua Network: Language-learning where and when it suits you
J.C. Hutchins is an award-winning fiction and nonfiction storyteller, with 15 years of professional writing experience. His two novels – 7th Son: Descent and Personal Effects: Dark Art — were published in 2009 by St. Martin’s Press. J.C. Hutchins
SurvivalPhrases.com was founded on the premise that it’s the people that make the place. SurvivalPhrases.com is a dynamic language educational website focusing on the world traveler with minimal linguistic ability. Our goal is to provide people around the world with essential linguistic tools to allow them to enjoy their travels that much more. SurvivalPhrases.com Travel Phrases - Arabic, Bulgarian, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Vietnamese
Next time the show will revolve around Rouge’s Double Dead Guy Ale, so scrape up some for drinking along if you can find it. And if you happen to be a fan of horror fiction, especially of the podcasted variety, crack open/download your favorite novel or short story and get reading/listening. Charlie the Beer Guy
Deutsche Welle is Germany’s international broadcaster that produces television, radio and online content in 30 languages. It provides a European perspective to its global audience and promotes intercultural dialogue. DW-WORLD.DE | Deutsche Welle
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada's national public broadcaster and one of this country's largest cultural institutions. Through the delivery of a comprehensive range of radio, television, Internet, and satellite-based services, CBC-Radio/Canada is available how, where, and when Canadians want it CBC Radio
Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice guardian.co.uk Latest news, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk
Slate is a daily magazine on the Web. Founded in 1996, we are a general-interest publication offering analysis and commentary about politics, news, business, technology, and culture Slate Magazine
Hong Kong's biggest Radio and TV RTHK ON INTERNET

zero-sum

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

About
Discover in
Share
Playing on

Build your vocabulary with Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day! Each day a Merriam-Webster editor offers insight into a fascinating new word -- explaining its meaning, current use, and little-known details about its origin.

Feedback

List View

Most Popular

Newer Episodes
Older Episodes
Most Popular
Most Recent
Most Viewed

121

Arts \ Literature
Education \ Language
Audio \ Language
Premium Learning \ Language Arts \ American Literature
Audio Books \ Arts & Entertainment
Audio Books \ Education & Professional
Audio Books \ Literature

RSS feed

Direct link

Playing on all devices

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 26, 2024 is:

zero-sum \ZEER-oh-SUM\ adjective
Zero-sum describes something, such as a game, mentality, or situation, in which any gain corresponds directly with an equivalent loss.

// Dividing up the budget is a zero-sum game.

See the entry >

Examples:
“Domestic migration is zero-sum, meaning a loss of college graduates prized by local officials and tax collectors in Washington or San Francisco can be a gain for Kansas City or Orlando.” — Josh Katz, The New York Times, 15 May 2023

Did you know?
Does game theory sound like fun? It can be—if you are a mathematician or economist who needs to analyze a competitive situation in which the outcome is determined by the choices of the players and chance. Game theory was introduced by mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern in their 1944 book The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. In game theory, a zero-sum game is one, such as chess or checkers, where each player has a clear purpose that is completely opposed to that of the opponent. In economics, a situation is zero-sum if the gains of one party are exactly balanced by the losses of another and no net gain or loss is created; however, such situations in real life are rare. zero-sum 00:01:52
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 25, 2024 is:

remuneration \rih-myoo-nuh-RAY-shun\ noun
Remuneration is a formal word that refers to an amount of money paid to someone for a service, loss, or expense, or to the act of paying such an amount. It is synonymous with recompense and pay.

// The actor was offered a modest speaking fee by the host as remuneration for giving her speech at the awards ceremony.

See the entry >

Examples:
"Workers are paid per task, with remuneration ranging from a cent to a few dollars—although the upper end is considered something of a rare gem, workers say." — Niamh Rowe, Wired, 15 Nov. 2023

Did you know?
Our evidence shows remuneration to be most at home in writing that concerns financial matters, especially when large amounts of money or forms of compensation are involved. Whether it's because money is often expressed in numerals, or simply because the n and m are adjacent to each other on our keyboards, reMUNeration often appears misspelled as reNUMeration. It pays to know, however, that in fact, renumeration is a distinct term, a rare word meaning "the act of enumerating again" (enumerate means "to list" or "to count"). remuneration 00:01:37
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 24, 2024 is:

clandestine \klan-DESS-tun\ adjective
Clandestine describes something done secretly, or in a private place or way.

// The wedding was a clandestine affair in Las Vegas.

See the entry >

Examples:
"On the surface, it uses the traditional tropes of the spy movie—a secret intelligence network, cryptic codenames, clandestine meetings in public places—but Ghost Trail isn’t exactly thrilling, certainly not in the manner of a John le Carré novel." — Damon Wise, Deadline, 15 May 2024

Did you know?
Psst!—if your first instinct, upon being asked what you’ve been up to, is to clam up, your querier may suspect you’ve been involved in some clandestine activities. Clandestine often substitutes for secret and covert, and it is commonly applied to actions that involve secrecy maintained for an evil, illicit, or unauthorized purpose, as in "clandestine activities pursued under cover of night." It comes to English by way of Middle French, from the Latin word clandestinus, which is itself from the Latin adverb clam, meaning "secretly." Note that this clam is not the ancestor of the English word clam, despite how tightly sealed and thus secretive the bivalves may seem. clandestine 00:01:47
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 23, 2024 is:

polemic \puh-LEM-ik\ noun
A polemic is a strong written or spoken attack against someone else’s opinions, beliefs, practices, etc.

// Her book is a fierce polemic against societal inequalities.

See the entry >

Examples:
“That winter of 1774-1775 could be considered the nadir of the entire American patriot movement. After the closing of the First Continental Congress, North Americans ‘turned upon one another as never before.’ The colonists had never had a single view of Britain or how to respond to the measures it was trying to impose on the American colonies. … Strong polemics against further resistance to the British government spouted from printing presses across the colonies.” — Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, The Age of Revolutions, 2024

Did you know?
Diatribe, jeremiad, philippic … the English language sure has a lot of formal words for the things we say or write when we are—to use a decidedly less formal term—big mad. We will refrain from going on a tirade about it, however, especially since it’s good to have options with subtle differences in tone and meaning. Polemic, which traces back ultimately to the Greek word for war, polemos, is the word you want to refer specifically to an aggressive attack on someone’s ideas or principles. Someone who is cheesed off because they don’t like cheese, for example, wouldn’t write a polemic about it. A turophile upset about the gustatory philosophy behind their local cheesemonger’s recent offerings just might. polemic 00:02:04
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 22, 2024 is:

supersede \soo-per-SEED\ verb
Supersede is a verb meaning "to take the place of (someone or something that is considered old, inferior, or no longer useful)." It is used synonymously with replace and displace.

// This edition of the manual supersedes the previous one.

See the entry >

Examples:
"The passive-aggressive signals to wind our gatherings down were replaced by point-blank requests to make less noise, have less fun, do our living somewhere else, even though these rooms belonged to us, too. … In those moments, I felt hot with shame and anger, yet unable to articulate why. It took me years to understand that, in demanding my friends and I quiet down, these students were implying that their comfort superseded our joy." — Xochitl Gonzalez, The Atlantic, 1 Aug. 2022

Did you know?
Language is constantly evolving, with old spellings and meanings superseded by new ones over time. Naturally, supersede itself has its share of predecessors. Supersede ultimately comes from the Latin verb supersedēre, meaning "to sit on top of" (sedēre means "to sit"), "to be superior to," or "to refrain from," but it came to English through Scots Middle English, where it was rendered superceden and used synonymously with defer. Modern English speakers are often confused about how to spell supersede—it sometimes turns up as supercede. In fact, some of the earliest records of the word in English show it spelled with a c. Though both spellings can be etymologically justified, over time supersede won out as the "correct" version. supersede 00:02:11
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 21, 2024 is:

vulnerable \VUL-nuh-ruh-bul\ adjective
A person described as vulnerable in a general way is someone who is easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally. Vulnerable can also describe a person, group, or thing that is open to attack, harm, or damage. Both senses of vulnerable are often followed by the preposition to.

// It is common to feel especially vulnerable in the wake of major change.

// The patient will be most vulnerable to infection immediately after surgery.

// Your computer is vulnerable to viruses without the proper antivirus software.

See the entry >

Examples:
“A pilot study found the area is particularly vulnerable to dangerous temperatures. The study found an abundance of asphalt and concrete, coupled with a lack of greenery, was leading to an urban heat island effect, which traps heat and can ratchet up temperatures more than 10 degrees.” — Michaela Mulligan, The Tampa Bay (Florida) Times, 19 Apr. 2024

Did you know?
Superheroes are often depicted in comic books and movies as all-powerful, deflecting boulders and missiles in mid-air with a flick of the wrist, walking through walls, and having indestructible skeletons and whatnot. Fans know, however, that even the mightiest, meatiest protagonist is vulnerable to something, be it kryptonite or forgetting the whereabouts of one’s hammer. Vulnerable ultimately comes from the Latin noun vulnus, meaning “wound,” by way of the Late Latin adjective vulnerabilis, which English speakers adopted as vulnerable in the early 1600s. Vulnerable continues to carry its original meaning of “capable of being physically wounded,” but since the late 1600s it has also been used figuratively to suggest a defenselessness against non-physical attacks. In other words, someone (or something) can be vulnerable to criticism or failure as well as to literal wounding—even superheroes. So don’t go breaking their hearts, even if you can’t break their bones. vulnerable 00:02:24
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 20, 2024 is:

hue and cry \HYOO-und-KRYE\ noun
Hue and cry refers to a clamor of alarm or protest in response to something. It can also be used as a synonym of hubbub to refer to general noise or uproar.

// After the popular professor was fired by the college, there was such a hue and cry from students that the administration was forced to reconsider its decision.

See the entry >

Examples:
“Bedazzled by the lucrative allures of STEM and the popularity of business degrees, universities have been defunding their humanities programs and transforming themselves into vocational training centers with five-star gyms. … The hue and cry over this benighted movement, in which institutions of higher learning are turning their backs on their fundamental mission, will likely not be enough to stop the forces operating under the cover of budgetary necessity.” — Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2023

Did you know?
Let’s say it’s the Middle Ages in England and a villainous highwayman has just made off with your purse of gold. What do you do? You can’t call the police, because in medieval England there is no organized police force, much less telephones; indeed, 911 is even less than a joke in your town—it doesn’t exist! Instead, the job of fighting crime belongs to ordinary citizens. The first step is to raise a stink—victims of or witnesses to a crime are expected to yell something like “stop thief!” so that anyone who hears the “hue and cry” will be legally bound to join in the pursuit of the perfidious pilferer. Fast-forwarding to today, although hue and cry (hue comes from an Old French word meaning “noise” or “outcry”; cry comes from the synonymous Anglo-French cri) was used in legal contexts upon entering English in the 15th century, it now more often refers to general alarm, complaint, or protest. hue and cry 00:02:18
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 19, 2024 is:

jubilee \JOO-buh-lee\ noun
Jubilee usually refers to a special anniversary or a celebration of such an anniversary. It can also refer generally to a season of celebration or act of rejoicing, or to a religious song of African Americans referring to a time of future happiness.

// My grandparents will be celebrating their golden jubilee this year—as Grandpa puts it, "50 years of wedded bliss and occasional blisters."

// The town is planning a year-long jubilee in celebration of its founding 200 years ago.

See the entry >

Examples:
"The Juneteenth Freedom Day Festival … will celebrate the date the remaining 250,000 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, first heard news of the Emancipation Proclamation. The commemoration of that event has spread from Texas and now is observed nationally as a day of jubilee and freedom." — Patrick Murfin, The Chicago Daily Herald, 16 June 2023

Did you know?
Juneteenth, a holiday observed in the United States on June 19 in commemoration of the end of slavery, has several other names as well, including Juneteenth National Independence Day, Freedom Day, Black Independence Day, and Jubilee Day. The word jubilee here is of special significance; while jubilee is often used generally to refer to an anniversary or celebration of an anniversary, its history is intertwined with the idea of emancipation. According to the biblical book of Leviticus, every fifty years Hebrew slaves were to be set free, lands given back to their former owners, and the fields left unharvested. This year of liberty was announced when a ram’s horn was blown. In Hebrew, that ceremonial horn was called a yōbhēl, and the celebratory year took its name from that of the horn. As the Bible was translated into other languages, the concept of the yōbhēl spread around the world, as did its name (albeit with spelling modifications). It eventually entered English via the Anglo-French word jubilé in the 14th century. Since then, jubilee has not only kept its original, biblical sense, but has gained others, including one referring to a traditional African American spiritual that looks forward to a time of future happiness and deliverance from oppression. jubilee 00:02:44
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 18, 2024 is:

brainiac \BRAY-nee-ak\ noun
A brainiac is a very intelligent person.

// Her ability to solve almost any puzzle within minutes secured her place as the brainiac of the family.

See the entry >

Examples:
"In this modern, adult-oriented take on the classic 'Scooby-Doo' franchise, the series follows the origin story of Velma Dinkley (Kaling), the brainiac of the Mystery Inc. gang. After a corpse is found in her high school, Velma teams up with Daphne (Constance Wu), Shaggy (Sam Richardson) and Fred (Glenn Howerton) to solve the murder." — Michaela Zee, Variety, 21 Dec. 2022

Did you know?
As Superman fans know, Brainiac was the superintelligent villain in the Action Comics series and its spin-offs. His name is a portmanteau of brain and maniac. You don't need x-ray vision to see the connection here—etymologists think Superman's brainy adversary is the likely inspiration for the common noun brainiac. The term was not coined right away though. The comic-book series was launched in 1938 and the character Brainiac debuted in 1958, but current evidence doesn't show general use of brainiac to refer to a superintelligent person until the 1970s. brainiac 00:01:43
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 17, 2024 is:

apocryphal \uh-PAH-kruh-ful\ adjective
Something described as apocryphal is of doubtful authenticity; the term is often applied to stories or legends that are often repeated but likely not true. Apocryphal can also describe something resembling or relating to the Apocrypha, the ancient Jewish books that are not part of the Hebrew Bible but are considered canonical in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. In the biblical use, the word is often capitalized.

// The legend of how the song was fully composed while the singer was in a deep fever state is probably apocryphal.

See the entry >

Examples:
"There is a likely apocryphal story about how Michelangelo, upon getting criticism about David's nose being too big, climbed a ladder and pretended to chisel it." — Rita Bullwinkel, The New York Times, 27 Feb. 2024

Did you know?
In biblical study, Apocrypha refers to books outside an accepted canon of scripture. In modern use, the term refers specifically to a group of ancient Jewish books that are not part of the Hebrew Bible but are considered canonical in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches; Protestant churches follow Jewish tradition in considering these books noncanonical. Both apocrypha and apocryphal come, via Latin, from the Greek word apokrýptein, meaning "to hide (from), keep hidden (from)," which in turn comes from krýptein, "to conceal, hide." Both words entered English in the 16th century with their nonbiblical meanings, apocrypha referring to writings or statements of dubious authenticity, and apocryphal describing such things. Apocryphal is now the more common word. It most often describes an oft-repeated tale that is almost certainly not true. apocryphal 00:02:14

please wait...

Media:English Navigation:English

Earn Cash | Publish | Advertise | Device Partners | Contact Us | DMCA | Help | About Viaway

Copyright © 2023 Viaway, Inc. ® All rights reserved.

Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of the Terms of Use, Cloud TV Terms and Conditions, FreeAir.tv Agreements, FreeAir.tv Internet Agreements, Purchase Agreement and Privacy Policy

2.070923.task