knackered
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 26 February 2026
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 26, 2026 is:
knackered • \NAK-erd\ • adjective
Knackered is an adjective mostly used informally in British English to mean “very tired or exhausted.”
// Unfortunately, I was too knackered after work to join them for dinner.
Examples:
“‘How are you doing?’ ‘Yeah, good thanks... just tired.’ I don’t know about you, but it feels like I’m having a version of this exchange at least once a day. It seems that everyone I know is genuinely and profoundly knackered. My friends say it. My postman says it. My teenage son says it. Even my partner, who usually has the energy levels of a Duracell-powered soft toy, grudgingly admits his batteries are drained.” — Sara Robinson, The Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales), 22 Nov. 2025
Did you know?
An apt synonym for knackered might be the phrase “dead tired” for more than one reason. Knackered is a 20th century coinage that comes from the past participle of knacker, a slang term meaning “to kill,” as well as “to tire, exhaust, or wear out.” This verb knacker likely comes from an older noun knacker, which first referred to a harness-maker or saddlemaker, and later to a buyer of animals no longer able to do farmwork (or their carcasses). Knackered is used on both sides of the Atlantic but is more common among British speakers.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Word of the Day podcast for February 26th. |
| 0:12.0 | Today's word is Nackard, spelled K-N-A-C-E-R-E-D. Nackard is an adjective. It's mostly used informally in British English to mean |
| 0:23.9 | very tired or exhausted. Here's the word used in a sentence from the Western Mail of Cardiff. |
| 0:31.8 | How are you doing? Yeah, good thanks, just tired. I don't know about you, but it feels like I'm having a version of this exchange at least once a day. |
| 0:40.8 | It seems that everyone I know is genuinely and profoundly knackered. |
| 0:45.2 | My friends say it. |
| 0:46.7 | My postman says it. |
| 0:48.3 | My teenage son says it. |
| 0:50.2 | Even my partner, who usually has the energy levels of a duracell-powered soft toy, grudgingly |
| 0:55.9 | admits his batteries are drained. |
| 0:59.1 | An apt synonym for the word knackard might be the phrase dead tired, for more than one reason. |
| 1:06.1 | Knackard is a 20th century coinage that comes from the past participle of knacker, a slang term meaning to kill, |
| 1:13.2 | as well as to tire exhaust or wear out. This verb, knacker, likely comes from an older noun, |
| 1:20.6 | knacker, which first referred to a harness maker or saddle maker, and later to a buyer of animals |
| 1:26.8 | no longer able to do farm work or their carcasses. |
| 1:30.9 | Nacquard is used on both sides of the Atlantic, but is more common among British speakers. |
| 1:36.6 | With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. |
| 1:43.1 | Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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