Today's Word

Replete

ri-PLEET

Definition

(adjective)Fully stocked, filled, or abundantly supplied with something.
Satisfied or full after eating.

Example

The novel was replete with vivid descriptions and intricate plot twists, making it a captivating read.

Fun Fact

“Replete” comes from the Latin repletus, meaning “filled up.” While often used to describe things overflowing with content, it also applies to physical fullness—similar to how we feel after a large meal. In nature, the term is notably used to describe replete ants, a species that stores food in their swollen abdomens to feed the colony during times of scarcity.

Previous Words

Maudlin

Today's Word

Maudlin

MAWD-lin

Definition

(adjective) Self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often in an excessive or embarrassing way; mawkishly emotional especially from drink.

Example

By the third glass of wine, he had gone fully maudlin, pulling out his phone to show anyone who would look at old photos of his college years.

Word Origin

A direct corruption of Magdalene — as in Mary Magdalene, who is depicted in medieval and Renaissance art as weeping with dramatic, open grief. The name Magdalene was pronounced maudlen in Middle English, and the association with her tearful image was so strong that the word detached from its origin entirely and became a common adjective by the 17th century. Oxford’s Magdalen College and Cambridge’s Magdalene College both preserve the original pronunciation — still said as maudlin — a linguistic fossil of the word’s religious origins.

Fun Fact

The connection between alcohol and maudlin sentiment is old enough to be embedded in the word’s earliest recorded uses. 17th century writers consistently paired maudlin with drunkenness — the specific emotional state of someone who has had just enough to drink to lose their emotional defenses entirely but not enough to lose consciousness. Modern neuroscience has since explained why: alcohol suppresses the prefrontal cortex, which regulates emotional inhibition, while leaving the limbic system — the brain’s emotional core — largely intact. The result is precisely the maudlin condition the word describes: emotions fully online, judgment fully offline.

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Replete

Definition

Example

Previous Words

Maudlin

Maudlin

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Maudlin

Onerous

Toady

Wanton

Laconic