Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 26, 2025 is:
sumptuous • \SUMP-shuh-wus\ • adjective
Sumptuous is used to describe things that are very expensive, rich, luxurious, or magnificent.
// The celebratory meal was a sumptuous feast of dishes from our host’s homeland.
Examples:
“With comfy living areas with bistro tables, sumptuous marble bathrooms, and large private lanais with sweeping views of the ocean, mountain, or gardens, guests have ample room to spread out, relax, and really make themselves at home.” — Elizabeth Brownfield, Forbes, 20 Mar. 2025
Did you know?
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens may be a few of your favorite things, but are they sumptuous? Alas, though the best things in life are often free, sumptuous is a child of the Latin word sumptus, meaning “expense,” and it typically describes things that can only be had at some significant expense. A sumptuous lifestyle, for example, is more likely to involve silver-white bling than a silver-white winter that melts into spring. Sumptus has another English relation, this one tied even more closely to conspicuous consumption: sumptuary laws are largely historical regulations limiting extravagant expenditures and habits, especially on moral or religious grounds. (The sump in consumption is coincidental; that word comes from consume, which has its roots in Latin sumere meaning “to take up, take.”)