Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 21, 2026 is:

dog days • \DAWG-DAYZ\  • plural noun

Dog days is a plural noun that refers to the hottest time of the year, which in the northern hemisphere is usually between early July and early September. Dog days can also refer to a period of stagnation or inactivity suggestive of hot, sultry weather when it can be difficult to summon the energy required for hard work.

// Spending the day at a swimming hole has always been the perfect relief for the dog days of summer.

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Examples:

“When the dog days of summer were at their fullest, my new friends and I often played scrub baseball at Cameron Street School. We also rode our bicycles all over the south end.” — Gary Baldwin, The Peterborough (Ontario) Examiner, 19 July 2025

Did you know?

Idle hands may be the devil’s workshop, but let’s be serious: when it’s stiflingly hot outside, who among us isn’t tempted to shirk work to go lie doggo in the shade somewhere? Such is the desire of many a creature—not just dogs (or lexicographers)—during the dog days of summer. If you’re curious about how dogs got singled out in this expression, we might say it was in the stars. The dog in dog days is the Dog Star, aka Sirius, the star that represents the hound of the hunter Orion in the eponymous constellation. The star has long been associated with sultry weather in the northern hemisphere because it rises simultaneously with the sun during the hottest days of summer.