ramshackle
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 12 August 2025
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 12, 2025 is:
ramshackle • \RAM-shak-ul\ • adjective
Ramshackle describes things that are in a very bad condition and need to be repaired, or that are carelessly or loosely constructed.
// Toward the back of the property stood a ramshackle old shed.
// The book had a ramshackle plot that was confusing and unbelievable.
Examples:
"House of the Weedy Seadragon ... and Semaphore Shack sit side-by-side in the sand dunes. They're part of a cosy cluster of ramshackle residences, built in the 1930s by a Hobart family as weekenders for the extended tribe to fish, swim and while away sun-soaked days." — The Gold Coast (Australia) Bulletin, 4 July 2025
Did you know?
Ramshackle has nothing to do with rams, nor the act of being rammed, nor shackles. The word is an alteration of ransackled, an obsolete form of the verb ransack, meaning "to search through or plunder." (Ransack comes from Old Norse rannsaka, which combines rann, "house," and -saka, a relation of the Old English word sēcan, "to seek.") A home that has been ransacked has had its contents thrown into disarray, and that image may be what inspired people to start using ramshackle in the first half of the 19th century to describe something that is poorly constructed or in a state of near collapse. Ramshackle in modern use can also be figurative, as in "a ramshackle excuse for the error."
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the word of the day for August 12th. |
| 0:12.0 | Today's word is ramshackle, spelled R-A-M-S-H-A-C-K-L-E. |
| 0:18.0 | Ramshackle is an adjective. |
| 0:20.0 | It describes things that are in a very bad condition and need to be |
| 0:24.8 | repaired or that are carelessly or loosely constructed. Here's the word used in a sentence from the |
| 0:31.5 | Gold Coast Bulletin. House of the Weedy Sea Dragon and Semaphore Shack sit side by side in the sand dunes. |
| 0:40.3 | They're part of a cozy cluster of ramshackle residences, built in the 1930s by a Hobart family |
| 0:46.7 | as weekenders for the extended tribe to fish, swim, and while away sun-soaked days. |
| 0:56.7 | The word ramshackle has nothing to do with rams, |
| 1:03.2 | nor the act of being rammed, nor shackles. The word is an alteration of ransackled, |
| 1:09.9 | an obsolete form of the verb ransack, meaning to search through or plunder. Ransack comes from the old Norse word, which combines |
| 1:12.3 | RAN, meaning house, and saka, a relation of the old English word Seikhan, meaning to seek. |
| 1:18.8 | A home that has been ransacked has had its contents thrown into disarray, and that image |
| 1:24.8 | may be what inspired people to start using ramshackle in the first half of the |
| 1:29.9 | 19th century to describe something that is poorly constructed or in a state of near collapse. |
| 1:36.3 | Ramshackle in modern use can also be figurative as in a ramshackle excuse for the error. |
| 1:42.3 | With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. |
| 1:47.8 | Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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