alacrity
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 28 April 2025
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 28, 2025 is:
alacrity • \uh-LAK-ruh-tee\ • noun
Alacrity refers to a quick and cheerful readiness to do something.
// She accepted the invitation to go on the trip with an alacrity that surprised her parents, who had assumed she wouldn’t be interested.
Examples:
“Antipater, about to mount his horse, saw Pollio and Sameas so close to him that the sleeve of Sameas almost touched his own in the crush. … Antipater had graciously invited the two to view his new grandson and sip a cup of wine cooled by snow brought from Mount Hermon. The two accepted with alacrity.” — Zora Neale Hurston, The Life of Herod the Great, 2025
Did you know?
“I have not that alacrity of spirit / Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have,” says William Shakespeare’s King Richard III in the play that bears his name. Alas and alack, Richard! Alacrity comes from the Latin word alacer, meaning “lively” or “eager,” and suggests physical quickness coupled with eagerness or enthusiasm. Thus, a spirit that lacks alacrity—like Richard III’s—is in the doldrums, in need of a little (to use a much less formal word than alacrity) get-up-and-go.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Word of the Day for April 28th. |
| 0:07.0 | Today's word is Alacrity, spelled A-L-A-C-R-I-T-Y. |
| 0:17.0 | Alacrity is a noun. |
| 0:19.0 | It refers to a quick and cheerful readiness to do something. |
| 0:22.3 | Here's the word used. In a sentence from the life of Herod the Great by Zora Neil Hurston. |
| 0:28.5 | Antipater, about to mount his horse, saw Pollyo and Sammias so close to him that the sleeve of |
| 0:35.2 | Samias almost touched his own in the crush. |
| 0:38.5 | Antipater had graciously invited the two to view his new grandson and sip a cup of wine |
| 0:44.0 | cooled by snow brought from Mount Hermon. The two accepted with alacrity. |
| 0:50.0 | Shakespeare's Richard III says in his play, |
| 0:53.0 | I have not that alacrity of spirit, nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have. |
| 0:59.9 | Alas and alac, Richard, alacrity comes from the Latin word alacare, meaning lively or eager, |
| 1:07.2 | and suggests physical quickness coupled with eagerness or enthusiasm. Thus, a spirit that lacks |
| 1:13.7 | alacrity, like Richard III's, is in the doldrums. In need of a little to use a much less formal |
| 1:20.3 | word than alacrity, get up and go. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. |
| 1:28.3 | Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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