It's the Word of the Day podcast for June 21st.

Today's word is litmus test, spelled as two words, L-I-T-M-U-S-T-E-S-T.

Litmus test is a noun.

A litmus test is something such as an opinion about a political or moral issue that is used to make a judgment about whether someone or something is acceptable.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the Hollywood reporter, quoting Erica Henningson. The audience in a Broadway show can be intoxicating,

and it's like a litmus test. If a joke doesn't land one night, you tell it differently the next night.

It's terrifying on set to have no idea if something is working. It was in the 14th century that scientists discovered that litmus,

a mixture of colored organic compounds obtained from lichen,

turns red in acid solutions and blue in alkaline solutions,

and thus can be used as an acid-base indicator. Six centuries later, people began using

litmus test figuratively. It can now refer to any single factor that establishes the true

character of something or causes something to be assigned to one category or another. Often it

refers to something, such as an opinion about a

political or moral issue that can be used to make a judgment about whether someone or

something is acceptable or not. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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