https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beach_of_Cape_Fiolent,_Crimea.jpg

Description:

Beach of Cape Fiolent during the storm at sea. Cape Fiolent in Crimea is of ancient Jurassic origin. Upper Miocene lava and carbonate intrusions on heavily eroded Jurassic foundation.

It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and therfore one seldom does it at all.

— Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/September_22%2C_2026

Nintendinitis n 🔊

1. (pathology, video games, humorous, informal) A form of repetitive strain injury, which may include tendinitis, affecting the thumbs or other fingers of frequent video gamers, often from the excessive use of the d-pad on a game controller.

☞ The Japanese video-game company Nintendo was founded on 23 September 1889.

Nintendo-Entertainment-System-NES-Controller-FL.jpg

The plus-shaped d-pad (directional pad) on the left side of this 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System game controller was an early cause of Nintendinitis.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/September_22

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chief_Joseph_by_Edward_Sheriff_Curtis.jpg

Description:

Chief Joseph of the Wallowa band of Nez Perce, an American Native American tribe in the Pacific Northwest. This photo was taken by Edward Sheriff Curtis. Chief Joseph died on this day in 1904.

It's coming through a hole in the air
From those nights in Tiananmen Square
It's coming from the feel
That it ain't exactly real
Or it's real, but it ain't exactly there
From the war against disorder
From the sirens night and day
From the fires of the homeless
From the ashes of the gay
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

— Leonard Cohen

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/September_21%2C_2026

hook, line and sinker adv 🔊

1. Completely, totally.
2. (specifically) Of accepting a belief, statement, etc.: naively, unquestioningly.

☞ The English author Izaak Walton, who wrote The Compleat Angler (1653), was baptized on this day in 1593, according to the Julian calendar (1 October by the Gregorian calendar)

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/September_21

When the first savage saw his hut destroyed by a bolt of lightning, he fell down upon his face in terror. He had no conception of natural forces, of laws of electricity; he saw this event as the act of an individual intelligence. … The story of the hero who slays the devouring dragon was not merely a symbol of day and night, of summer and winter; it was a literal explanation of the phenomena, it was the science of early times.

— Upton Sinclair

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/September_20%2C_2026

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bloeiwijze_van_een_Rostrinucula_dependens._11-10-2025._(d.j.b).jpg

Description:

Inflorescence of a Rostrinucula dependens. This subshrub is native to China and blooms from August to October. Focus stack of 54 photos.

rizz v 🔊

1. (transitive, originally US, slang) Often followed by up: to attract or seduce (a love interest).

rizz n

1. (originally US, slang) A person's ability to attract a love interest, usually female; attractiveness, charm.

☞ The social network and online video platform Tiktok was launched on this day 10 years ago in 2016.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/September_20

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zitting_Cisticola_in_Bhigwan_August_2025_by_Tisha_Mukherjee_01.jpg

Description:

A fan-tailed warbler (Zitting cisticola) in Bhigwan, Maharashtra, India.

I don’t like the word "allegorical", I don’t like the word "symbolic", the word I really like is "mythic" and people always think that means "full of lies" when what it really means is full of a truth that cannot be told in any other way but a story.

— William Golding

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/September_19%2C_2026

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Norderney,_Promenade,_Wegbeleuchtung_--_2025_--_9015.jpg

Description:

Street lights on the promenade, Norderney, Lower Saxony, Germany

starboard n 🔊

1. (aviation, astronautics, nautical) The right-hand side of, originally, a ship or other marine vessel, and now also an aircraft or spacecraft, when one is facing the front, or the bow or fore.
2. (by extension, nautical) One of the two traditional watches aboard a ship standing a watch in two.

starboard v

1. (transitive) To turn (the helm of a vessel) towards the starboard or right side, causing the vessel to turn to port or the left.
2. (intransitive)
   1. Originally, to turn the helm of a vessel towards the starboard or right side, causing the vessel to turn to port or the left.
   2. Now (chiefly), to turn a vessel to starboard or the right side; also, of a vessel: to turn to starboard or the right side. [...]

☞ Today is the eve of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by John Baur (“Ol’ Chumbucket”) and Mark Summers (“Cap’n Slappy”), of Albany, Oregon, U.S.A.

Eyre, Port Lincoln, 2017 (02).jpg

The starboard (etymology 1, noun sense 1) of the pilot vessel Eyre berthed at Port Lincoln, South Australia.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/September_18

supernova n 🔊

1. (astronomy) A bright and powerful explosion of a massive star which is sudden but brief, and causes the ejection of most or all of the star's matter and the emission of radiation; afterwards, the star becomes a black hole or a neutron star, or is destroyed.
2. (figurative) Something which is brilliant or explosive.

☞ Today, the Saturday nearest the first quarter moon between mid-September and mid-October in 2026, is the second of two Astronomy Days in the year. The event was started in 1973 by Doug Berger, the president of the Astronomical Association of Northern California.

NASA's Chandra Releases 'Red, White, and Blue' Universe for US 250th (Cassiopeia A composite).jpg

A composite image of Cassiopeia A, a supernova remnant in the constellation Cassiopeia, imaged by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, a space telescope orbiting Earth.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/September_19

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.

— Samuel Johnson

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/September_18%2C_2026

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Intertwined_roots_of_two_birches_next_to_Myrstigen_hiking_trail_in_Brastad.jpg

Description:

The intertwined roots of two birches (Betula pendula) next to Myrstigen hiking trail in Brastad, Lysekil Municipality, Sweden. The birches grow in a rest and grilling area with benches. Being of the right height, the roots are often used as an extra sitting place, and they get scuffed and polished regularly by the people using them. The other roots in the area are covered with moss and lichen. The area is also on a slope, so it gets washed free of debris as soon as it rains. This leaves the roots more exposed than others in the forest, and they look like shiny veins of the forest.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iglesia_del_colegio_de_los_Jesuitas,_Ponta_Delgada,_isla_de_San_Miguel,_Azores,_Portugal,_2020-07-30,_DD_09-11_HDR.jpg

Description:

Church of the Jesuit College, Ponta Delgada, São Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eurasian_coot_(Fulica_atra)_with_chicks.jpg

Description:

Eurasian coot (Fulica atra) with chicks, Estanque de San Lázaro, Trujillo, Spain.

There are no events but thoughts and the heart's hard turning, the heart's slow learning where to love and whom. The rest is merely gossip, and tales for other times.

— Annie Dillard

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/September_17%2C_2026

enfranchisement n

1. (uncountable) The action of enfranchising (“admitting to a privilege; releasing from legal liability; setting free”); also, the fact or state of being enfranchised; (countable) an instance of this.
   1. (uncountable) Release from imprisonment, political oppression, or slavery; emancipation, liberation; (countable) an instance of this.
   2. (figurative, uncountable) The action of freeing or releasing; freeing, liberation, release; (countable) an instance of this.
   3. (often politics, uncountable) The granting of privileges; (countable) an instance of this.
      1. The granting of citizenship or political rights (especially the right to vote) to a person.
      2. The granting of membership of a corporation, municipality, etc., to a person.
      3. The granting of privileges, especially the right to be represented in a legislature, to a city or town.
   4. (England and Wales, property law, historical, uncountable) The conversion of a copyhold or leasehold estate into a freehold estate; (countable) an instance of this.

☞ The International Day of Democracy, which is recognized by the United Nations to promote and uphold the principles of democracy, was on 15 September 2026.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/September_17

Enough of dreams! No longer mock
The burdened hearts of men!
Not on the cloud, but on the rock
Build thou thy faith again;

O range no more the realms of air,
Stoop to the glen-bound streams;
Thy hope was all too like despair:
Enough, enough of dreams.

— Alfred Noyes

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/September_16%2C_2026

The very existence of government at all, infers inequality. The citizen who is preferred to office becomes the superior to those who are not, so long as he is the repository of power, and the child inherits the wealth of the parent as a controlling law of society.

— James Fenimore Cooper

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/September_15%2C_2026

adrift adv 🔊

1. In or into a drifting condition; moved (especially on water by waves and wind) without being propelled or steered.
2. (figurative)
   1. Not in the expected or usual place or position; awry; also, not following the expected or usual course; astray, off course.
   2. (originally nautical) In an unattached or unfastened condition; apart, loose, off.
   3. (originally and chiefly UK, sports, informal) Chiefly followed by of: in a position or having a score behind that of another competitor or an opponent.

adrift adj

1. Drifting (especially on water) without being propelled or steered.
2. (figurative)
   1. Of a person or group of people: having no aim or direction; aimless, lost.
   2. (nautical) Of a sailor: absent without leave or permission.
   3. (originally nautical) Of an object: no longer attached in position; detached, loose, unattached, unfastened; also, lost, missing.
   4. (originally and chiefly UK, sports, informal) In a position or having a score behind that of another competitor or an opponent; below an expected level in terms of some position, score, or target.

☞ The Canadian author Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi, about an Indian boy who is shipwrecked and stranded for 227 days on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger, was first published 25 years ago on 11 September 2001.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/September_15

whole enchilada n 🔊

1. (idiomatic, chiefly US, slang) All of something; also, all of a group of related things taken in totality.

☞ Today is Mexico’s Independence Day. The Mexican War of Independence against the Spanish Empire began on this day in 1810 with the Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores) by the Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, who rang the bell of his church in Dolores Hidalgo to give the call to arms.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/September_16