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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 3, 2026 is:
adroit • \uh-DROYT\ • adjective
Adroit describes someone or something that has or shows skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations.
// We marveled at how adroit the puppeteers were, the marionettes responding to each precise shift of their hands, each flick of their wrists.
Examples:
“She offers here the most invigorating of performances, technically adroit but also informed by equal measures of artistry and youth, and there’s a humility to her singing, along with a sense of her character’s smallness in the face of life’s travails and machinations …” — Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune, 2 Feb. 2026
Did you know?
The meaning and history of adroit is straightforward, so we’ll get right to the point. English speakers borrowed the word with its meaning from French in the mid 1600s, but the word’s ultimate source is the Latin adjective directus, meaning “straight, direct.” Adroit entered English as a means for describing physically skillful sorts, but it came to be applied to those known for their expertise, cleverness, and resourcefulness too. Today, adroit most often describes things people do especially well.
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day — adroit. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
0:00It's Maryam Webster's Word of the Day for April 3rd. Today's word is a droid spelled A-D-R-O-I-T. A droid is an adjective. It describes someone or something that has or shows skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations. Here's the word used in a sentence from the Chicago Tribune. She offers here the most invigorating of performances, technically a droid, but also informed by equal measures of artistry and youth, and there's a humility to her singing, along with a sense of her character's smallness in the face of life's travails and machinations. The meaning and history of the word a droid is straightforward, so we'll get right to the point. English speakers borrowed the word with its meaning from French in the mid-1600s, but the word's ultimate source is the Latin
1:02adjective directuce, meaning straight or direct. A droid entered English as a means for describing physically skillful sorts, but it came to be applied to those known for their expertise, cleverness, and resourcefulness, too. Today, a droid most often describes things people do especially well. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sakalowski. Visit marionwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.
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