anomaly
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 25 September 2025
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 25, 2025 is:
anomaly • \uh-NAH-muh-lee\ • noun
Anomaly is a somewhat formal word that refers to something that is remarkable in its deviation from what is usual or expected.
// Last summer’s storm was an anomaly for this area.
// We were unable to explain the anomalies in the test results.
Examples:
“Magic realism usually makes no attempt to explain or justify the anomaly behind the magical event. Its justification lies in the conceptual possibilities it allows for in the narrative, pleasure it provides, and feeling of strangeness that comes from a familiar world being tweaked.” — Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Not Here, Not Now: Speculative Thought, Impossibility, and the Design Imagination, 2025
Did you know?
You might be familiar with the Greek word homos, which means “same.” It is from this word that we get words like homonym, homogeneous, and homophone, all of which have to do with sameness or similarity. What does this have to do with anomaly? Although it’s not obvious, homos is a part of the etymology of anomaly, too. Anomaly is a descendant—by way of Latin and Middle French—of the Greek word anṓmalos, which means “uneven” or “irregular.” Anṓmalos comes from the prefix a- (meaning “not”) and the word homalόs (meaning “even”)—and homalόs comes from homos.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Word of the Day for September 25th. |
| 0:10.0 | Today's word is anomaly, spelled A-N-O-M-A-L-Y. |
| 0:17.0 | Anomily is a noun. |
| 0:19.0 | It's a somewhat formal word that refers to something that is remarkable |
| 0:22.5 | in its deviation from what is unusual or expected. Here's the word used in a sentence from |
| 0:29.7 | not here, not now, speculative thought, impossibility, and the design imagination by Anthony Dunn and Fiona Rabi. |
| 0:39.5 | Magic realism usually makes no attempt to explain or justify the anomaly behind the magical |
| 0:46.2 | event. Its justification lies in the conceptual possibilities it allows for in the narrative, |
| 0:53.3 | pleasure it provides, and feeling of strangeness |
| 0:55.9 | that comes from a familiar world being tweaked. You might be familiar with the Greek word |
| 1:02.2 | homos, H-O-M-O-S, which means same. It's from this word that we get words like homonym, homogenous, and homophone, all of which have to do with sameness or similarity. |
| 1:15.6 | What does this have to do with the word anomaly? |
| 1:18.6 | Although it's not obvious, homos is a part of the etymology of anomaly too. |
| 1:23.6 | Anomily is a descendant by way of the Latin and middle French words of the Greek word |
| 1:30.3 | anomalos, which means uneven or irregular. Anomalos comes from the prefix a meaning not, and the word |
| 1:38.9 | homalos meaning even. And homalos comes from homos. |
| 1:46.7 | With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. |
| 1:55.9 | Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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