abide
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 12 November 2025
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 12, 2025 is:
abide • \uh-BYDE\ • verb
If someone cannot abide someone or something bad, unpleasant, etc., they cannot tolerate or accept that person or thing. Abide can also mean "to accept without objection" and "to remain or continue."
// I just can't abide such blatant dishonesty.
// Residents agree to abide by the dorm's rules.
Examples:
"If a legal party ... doesn't like a district court ruling, it is free to challenge the decision to a federal appellate court and then the Supreme Court. But while the appeal plays out, the legal party must abide by the ruling." — Will Rogers, The Baltimore Sun, 22 July 2025
Did you know?
Abide has abided in the English language since before the 12th century, picking up along the way several meanings and inflections that are now rare or no longer in use. For instance, one of abide's former meanings was "to stop" and its former past participle was abidden (whereas we now use abided or abode). Today, abide often turns up in the phrase "can't abide" to say that someone cannot tolerate or accept something. The expression abide by, which means "to accept and be guided by (something)," is also common. Related terms include abiding, meaning "continuing for a long time" or "not changing" (as in "an abiding friendship"), abidance ("continuance" or "the act or process of doing what you have been asked or ordered to do"), and abode ("the place where someone lives").
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Merriam Webster's Word of the Day for November 12th. |
| 0:11.9 | Today's word is abide, spelled A-B-I-D-E. Abide is a verb. |
| 0:18.3 | If someone cannot abide someone or something bad or unpleasant, they cannot tolerate or |
| 0:23.6 | accept that person or thing. Abide can also mean to accept without objection and to remain or continue. |
| 0:32.2 | Here's the word used in a sentence from the Baltimore Sun. If a legal party doesn't like a district court ruling, |
| 0:39.2 | it is free to challenge the decision to a federal appellate court |
| 0:43.2 | and then the Supreme Court. |
| 0:45.6 | But while the appeal plays out, |
| 0:48.0 | the legal party must abide by the ruling. |
| 0:51.8 | Abide has abided in the English language since before the 12th century, picking up along |
| 0:57.9 | the way several meanings and inflections that are now rare or no longer in use. For instance, |
| 1:03.7 | one of Abide's former meanings was to stop, and its former past participle was abidden, whereas we now use abided or abode. |
| 1:14.2 | Today, abide often turns up in the phrase can't abide to say that someone cannot tolerate or accept something. |
| 1:21.3 | The expression abide by, which means to accept and be guided by something, is also common. Related terms include abiding, |
| 1:30.5 | meaning continuing for a long time, or not changing, as in an abiding friendship. Abidance, |
| 1:38.3 | meaning continuance, or the act or process of doing what you have been asked or ordered to do, and abode, meaning the place |
| 1:47.0 | where someone lives. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. |
| 1:53.3 | Visit marianwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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