Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Every morning, Merriam-Webster editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski shows up in your podcast feed with a single word. That's it. One word, under two minutes, and you move on with your day a little sharper than before. The format is beautifully simple: Sokolowski introduces the word, explains what it means, traces its etymology back through Latin or Greek or Old French, and then drops it into a sentence pulled from actual published writing. You hear how the word lives in real usage, not just a dictionary definition. What makes this stand out from a basic word-a-day calendar is the warmth Sokolowski brings to each entry. He genuinely gets excited about language, and that enthusiasm is contagious. The etymological backstories are often surprising -- you'll learn that "salary" traces back to Roman soldiers being paid in salt, or that "muscle" comes from a Latin word meaning "little mouse" because of how muscles move under the skin. Those little connections stick with you. With over a decade of daily episodes and a 4.5-star rating from more than 1,200 reviews, this is probably the lowest-effort, highest-return vocabulary podcast you can subscribe to. It works perfectly as a morning micro-ritual. Pop it on while you're making coffee, and by the time you've had your first sip, you've picked up a word you can actually use. The back catalog alone is a treasure trove if you want to binge your way through hundreds of entries on a long drive.