wreak
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2025
⏱️ 2 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 25, 2025 is:
wreak • \REEK\ • verb
Wreak means “to cause something very harmful or damaging.” It is often used with on or upon.
// The virus wreaked havoc on my laptop.
Examples:
“Ours is a geography of cataclysm: Santa Anas wreak their psychic wrath; the odor of disaster seeps from the street like that sulfurous egg smell of the La Brea Tar Pits.” — John Lopez, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Sept. 2025
Did you know?
In its early days, wreak was synonymous with avenge, a meaning exemplified when Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus proclaims “We will solicit heaven, and move the gods / To send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.” This sense is now archaic, but the association hasn't been lost: although wreak is today most often paired with havoc, it is also still sometimes paired with words like vengeance and destruction. We humbly suggest you avoid wreaking any of that, however, no matter how badly you may crave your just deserts.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's the word of the day for October 25th. |
| 0:10.0 | Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.coed.uk.ukes slash wanderie. |
| 0:17.9 | That's audible.com.com.uk-woundary. |
| 0:23.3 | Today's word is reek, spelled W-R-E-A-K. |
| 0:28.4 | RIC is a verb. It means to cause something very harmful or damaging. |
| 0:33.0 | It's often used with on or upon. |
| 0:36.2 | Here's the word used in a sentence from the Hollywood Reporter. |
| 0:39.8 | Ours is a geography of cataclysm. |
| 0:42.6 | Santa Ana's Reek their psychic wrath. |
| 0:45.4 | The odor of disaster seeps from the street |
| 0:48.2 | like that sulfurous egg smell of the Labreia tar pits. |
| 0:53.3 | In its early days, the word reek was synonymous with the word avenge, a meaning exemplified |
| 1:00.0 | when Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus proclaims, we will solicit heaven and move the gods to send |
| 1:07.0 | down justice for to wreak our wrongs. |
| 1:10.0 | This sense is now archaic, but the association hasn't been |
| 1:14.2 | lost, although reek is today most often paired with havoc. It's also still sometimes paired with |
| 1:20.5 | words like vengeance and destruction. We humbly suggest you avoid reeking any of that, however, |
| 1:27.2 | no matter how badly you may crave |
| 1:29.0 | your just desserts. With your word of the wordplay, and trending word lookups. |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Merriam-Webster, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Merriam-Webster and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.