umpteen
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 2 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 24, 2026 is:
umpteen • \UMP-teen\ • adjective
Umpteen is an informal adjective meaning "very many" or "indefinitely numerous."
// The artist has painted the same subject umpteen times, yet each piece has its own unique quality.
Examples:
"The life of a showgirl often includes umpteen costume changes, elaborate props and copious amounts of hairspray." – The Economist, 4 Oct. 2025
Did you know?
There may not be a gazillion ways in English to refer to a large, indefinite number, but there are definitely more than a soupçon. Many of these, such as zillion, bazillion, kazillion, jillion, and bajillion, start with -illion (as in million) and add a satisfying consonant or syllable in front for some extra oomph. The adjective umpteen does the same for -teen, with the oomph provided by the ump in umpty. Umpty, an adjective meaning "such and such" (as in "umpty percent" or "umpty-four") arose, like umpteen, in the latter half of the 1800s. We only occasionally use umpty these days, but you're bound to hear or read umpteen and umpteenth ("latest or last in an indefinitely numerous series") any number of times.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the word of the day for February 24th. |
| 0:12.0 | Today's word is umpteen, spelled U-M-P-T-E-E-N. |
| 0:18.0 | Upteen is an adjective. |
| 0:20.0 | It's an informal word meaning very many or indefinitely numerous. |
| 0:24.6 | Here's the word used in a sentence from The Economist. The life of a showgirl often includes umpteen |
| 0:31.8 | costume changes, elaborate props, and copious amounts of hairspray. |
| 0:43.2 | There may not be a gazillion ways in English to refer to a large, indefinite number, |
| 0:45.8 | but there are definitely more than a subson. |
| 0:52.0 | Many of these, such as zillion, bazillion, caesillion, gillian, and begillion, |
| 0:58.2 | start with I-L-L-I-O-N, as in million, and add a satisfying consonant or syllable in front for some extra oomph. The adjective umpteen does the same for |
| 1:04.9 | teen, with the oomph provided by the ump in umpti. Umpti, an adjective meaning such and such as in umpti percent or umpti four |
| 1:14.7 | arose like umpteen in the latter half of the eighteen hundreds we only occasionally use umpti these days |
| 1:22.5 | but you're bound to hear or read umpteen and umpteenth, meaning the latest or last in an indefinitely numerous |
| 1:30.2 | series any number of times. With your word of, wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
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