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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 18, 2026 is:
jejune • \jih-JOON\ • adjective
Jejune is a formal word that means "uninteresting" or "boring." It is also used as a synonym of juvenile to describe things (such as behaviors, attitudes, etc.) that are immature, childish, or simplistic.
// The movie adaptation employed surreal visual effects to tell the story, making the plot, jejune in the novel, archetypal rather than artless.
// The professor made rude and jejune remarks about the students' artwork.
Examples:
"While [author Helen] Garner has journaled most of her life, she burned her early diaries in a bonfire having deemed them too embarrassing or jejune." — The Irish Times, 29 Mar. 2025
Did you know?
Starved for excitement? You won't get it from something jejune. The term comes to us from the Latin word jejunus, which means "empty of food," "hungry," or "meager." When English speakers first used jejune back in the 1600s, they applied it in ways that mirrored the meaning of its Latin parent, lamenting "jejune appetites" and "jejune morsels." Something that is meager rarely satisfies, and before long jejune was being used not only for meager meals or hunger, but also for things lacking in intellectual or emotional substance. It's possible that the word gained its now-popular "juvenile" or "childish" sense when people confused it with the look-alike French word jeune, which means "young."
