nonchalant
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 26 April 2025
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 26, 2025 is:
nonchalant • \nahn-shuh-LAHNT\ • adjective
Someone described as nonchalant is relaxed and calm, either because they do not care about something or because they are not worried about something. Nonchalant can also be used to describe something, such as demeanor or behavior, that expresses such relaxed, calm unconcern.
// The team showed a somewhat nonchalant attitude at the beginning of the season, but they became more serious once the championship was within reach.
Examples:
"He is largely unaffected by the fame and fortune and all the talk of greatness tends to be greeted with a nonchalant shrug." — The Evening Times (Glasgow, Scotland), 19 Mar. 2024
Did you know?
Since nonchalant ultimately comes from words meaning "not" and "be warm," it's no surprise that the word is all about keeping one's cool. Nonchalant’s Old French ancestor is the verb nonchaloir, meaning "to disregard," which combines non-, meaning "not," with chaloir, meaning "to concern." Chaloir in turn traces back to the Latin calēre, meaning "to be warm" (calēre is also the forerunner of the heat-related English word calorie). You might assume that the prefix non- implies the existence of an antonymous chalant, but no such word has developed in English. It’s no big deal though—if you want a word that means the opposite of nonchalant, both concerned and interested can do the job.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the word of the day for April 26th. |
| 0:08.0 | Today's word is nonchalant, spelled N-O-N-C-H-A-L-A-N-T. |
| 0:18.0 | Nonschalant is an adjective. Someone described as nonchalant is relaxed and calm, either because they |
| 0:24.2 | don't care about something or because they're not worried about something. Nonschalant can also be |
| 0:30.3 | used to describe something such as demeanor or behavior that expresses such relaxed, calm, |
| 0:36.0 | unconcern. Here's the word used in a sentence from the |
| 0:38.8 | evening times of Glasgow. He is largely unaffected by the fame and fortune, and all the talk |
| 0:45.7 | of greatness tends to be greeted with a nonchalant shrug. Since the word nonchalant ultimately comes |
| 0:52.5 | from the words meaning not and to be warm, |
| 0:55.8 | it's no surprise that the word is all about keeping one's cool. |
| 1:00.1 | Nonchalant's old French ancestor is the verb nonchalwar meaning to disregard, |
| 1:06.0 | which combines non meaning not with chalwar meaning to concern. |
| 1:13.3 | Chalwar in turn traces back to the Latin word calere, meaning to be warm. Caleri is also the forerunner of the heat-related English |
| 1:19.8 | word calorie. You might assume that the prefix non implies the existence of an |
| 1:25.9 | antonymous shallot, but no such word has |
| 1:29.0 | developed in English. It's no big deal, though. If you want |
| 1:32.0 | a word that means the opposite of nonchalant, both concerned |
| 1:35.3 | and interested can do the job. With your word of the day, |
| 1:39.2 | I'm Peter Sokolowski. |
| 1:43.7 | Visit marianwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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