Today's Word

Dulcet

DUL-sit

Definition

(adjective) Sweet and soothing to the ear; melodious and gentle in sound

Example

The dulcet tones of the jazz trio drifted through the open windows and out into the warm evening air.

Word Origin

Dulcet derives from the Old French doucet, a diminutive of doux (“sweet”), itself from the Latin dulcis (“sweet”). It entered English in the 15th century, used first in music and poetry to describe sounds of particular sweetness and gentleness, and has retained that musical, lyrical quality ever since.

Fun Fact

Dulcet shares its Latin root dulcis with a surprising range of words — including dulce de leche, the caramel confection beloved across Latin America, and dulcimer, the stringed folk instrument whose very name means “sweet sound.” The connection between sweetness and pleasant sound is ancient and cross-cultural: in many languages, the same word for “sweet” does double duty to describe both taste and sound, suggesting that humans have long understood beauty in these two senses as fundamentally linked.

Previous Words

Expiate

Today's Word

Expiate

EK-spee-ayt

Definition

(verb) To make amends for wrongdoing or sin through deliberate acts of reparation or atonement.

Example

He spent the decade after the verdict quietly expiating his role in the company’s collapse — funding the employees he’d left without pensions, one by one.

Word Origin

Expiate derives from the Latin expiare, meaning “to atone for” — built from ex- (“completely”) and piare (“to appease” or “to make pious”), itself from pius meaning “dutiful” or “devout.” The same root gives us pious and piety. It entered English in the 16th century, used almost exclusively in religious and moral contexts to describe the deliberate, active process of making right what was done wrong — not merely feeling remorse but doing something about it.

Fun Fact

The concept of expiation sits at the heart of the ancient Jewish observance of Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement — considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Central to its original Temple-era practice was the scapegoat ritual: two goats were selected, one sacrificed and one symbolically loaded with the community’s sins and released into the wilderness. The released goat — the original “scapegoat” — carried the sins away physically, making expiation literal and visible. The ritual gave English one of its most enduring metaphors while preserving in language a practice that is over three thousand years old.

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Dulcet

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Previous Words

Expiate

Expiate

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Expiate

Gourmand

Proscribe

Apocryphal

Redoubtable