chagrin

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 20, 2025 is:

chagrin • \shuh-GRIN\ • noun

Chagrin refers to a feeling of frustration or annoyance caused by failure or disappointment.

// I decided to take a gap year to the chagrin of my parents.

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Examples:

“Hundreds of fans decked out in Dodger blue crammed into Tokyo Haneda Airport’s arrival hall dreaming of pointing at and snapping a photo of the team or their favorite player. To their chagrin, the airport constructed partitions that blocked any view of the squad.” — Andrew J. Campa, The Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2025

Did you know?

Despite what its second syllable may lead one to believe, chagrin has nothing to do with grinning or amusement—quite the opposite, in fact. Chagrin, which almost always appears in phrases such as “to his/her/their chagrin,” refers to the distress one feels following a humiliation, disappointment, or failure. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the word’s French ancestor, the adjective chagrin, means “sad.” What may be surprising is that the noun form of the French chagrin, meaning “sorrow” or “grief,” can also refer to a rough, untanned leather (and is itself a modification of the Turkish word sağrı, meaning “leather from the rump of a horse”). This chagrin gave English the word shagreen, which can refer to such leather, or to the rough skin of various sharks and rays.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the Word of the Day podcast for May 20th.
0:11.6	Today's word is chagrin, spelled C-H-A-G-R-I-N.
0:17.3	Shagrin is a noun. It refers to a feeling of frustration or annoyance caused by failure or
0:22.4	disappointment. Here's the word used in a sentence from the LA Times. Hundreds of fans decked out
0:28.3	in Dodger Blue crammed into Tokyo Haneda Airport's arrival hall, dreaming of pointing at and
0:34.7	snapping a photo of the team or their favorite player.
0:38.1	To their chagrin, the airport constructed partitions that blocked any view of the squad.
0:43.9	Despite what its second syllable may lead one to believe, chagrin has nothing to do with grinning or amusement,
0:51.7	quite the opposite, in fact.
0:53.6	Shagrin, which almost always appears in phrases such as to his or her or their chagrin,
0:59.5	refers to the distress one feels following a humiliation, disappointment, or failure.
1:05.3	Perhaps unsurprisingly, the words French ancestor, the adjective chagrin, means sad. What may be surprising is that the noun
1:14.0	form of the French chagrin, meaning sorrow or grief, can also refer to a rough, untanned, leather,
1:20.9	and is itself a modification of the Turkish word sagri, meaning leather from the rump of a horse.
1:30.1	This chagrin gave English the word chagreen, which can refer to such leather or to the rough skin of various sharks and
1:35.8	rays. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:42.2	Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.

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