https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common_wombat_(Vombatus_ursinus_tasmaniensis)_juvenile_Maria_Island.jpg

Description:

Common wombat (Vombatus ursinus tasmaniensis) juvenile on Maria Island, Tasmania, Australia.

You might occasionally feel that some people are standing in the way and slowing your progress, but in reality the biggest person standing in your way is you. Others can stop you temporarily — you are the only one who can do it permanently.

— Zig Ziglar

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/November_6%2C_2026

sax n 🔊

1. Clipping of saxophone.
2. Clipping of saxophonist.

sax v

1. (transitive) Followed by the dummy pronoun it: to play the saxophone.
2. (intransitive) To play the saxophone.

sax n

1. (weaponry, obsolete except historical) A short sword used by Germanic peoples, especially the Saxons, from about the 4th to 10th centuries; a type of dagger; a seax; also, a type of knife or machete used as a cutting tool by these peoples.
2. (by extension) A tool, similar to a hatchet, with an edge for cutting slate tiles for roofing, and a sharp point for making holes in the tiles for nails; a zax. [...]

☞ The Belgian musician Adolphe Sax, who invented the saxophone, was born on this day in 1814.

Seax from the River Thames on display in the Museum of London.jpg

Marteau d'ardoisier.jpg

A sax or seax (etymology 1, noun sense 1) dated to the Early Middle Ages (c.* 5th–10th centuries) recovered from the Thames in London, England, United Kingdom.[n 1]*

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/November_6

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Norderney,_D%C3%BCnenlandschaft,_Wegweiser_--_2025_--_9437.jpg

Description:

Dune landscape with fingerpost (to the wreck) in the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park, Norderney, Lower Saxony, Germany

voir dire n 🔊

1. (Commonwealth, US) A separate hearing held in the course of a trial to determine some specific issue relevant to that trial, such as the admissibility of a piece of evidence or the competence of a witness to testify.
2. (Commonwealth, US, criminal law, specifically) A preliminary hearing held without a jury to determine whether the evidence of a criminal offence is admissible such that the matter should go to trial.
3. (US) The preliminary phase of a jury trial in which the jurors are examined and selected; impanelment.

☞ Tomorrow, the first Friday of November in 2026, is Love Your Lawyer Day, which was established 25 years ago in 2001 by the American Lawyers Public Image Association.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/November_5

There is no chance no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent or hinder or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/November_5%2C_2026

Ours will neither be a perfect world, nor a world without disagreement and occasional violence. But it will be a world where the overwhelming majority of national leaders will consistently abide by the rule of world law, and those who won't will be dealt with effectively and with due process by the structures of that same world law. We will never have a city without crime, but we would never want to live in a city that had no system of law to deal with the criminals who will always be with us.

— Walter Cronkite

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/November_4%2C_2026

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swing_into_books,_Book_week,_November_1-7,_1964.jpg

Description:

Swing into books. Book week, November 1-7, 1964.

lame duck n 🔊

1. (idiomatic, informal, also attributive) A person or thing that is unable to function without assistance, or which is otherwise helpless, ineffective, or inefficient.
   1. (finance) A business which is not profitable or successful; specifically (originally and chiefly UK), a private business, industry, etc., which is unable to continue without financial assistance, especially from the government.
   2. (nautical) A ship which is unable to sail properly, especially because its means of propulsion is not working; (by extension) some other type of vehicle which is unable to run.
   3. (stock market, slang, dated) A person who invests or speculates in a stock market but is unable to fulfil their contracts.
   4. (originally US, politics) A politician regarded as ineffective or unsuccessful, especially one who lost an election; specifically, an elected official or politician, an administration, etc., that has lost an election or is not eligible for reelection, and is regarded as lacking political influence or power during the remainder of a term of office.
      1. (by extension) A person who is leaving a job, position, etc., soon, and so is regarded as lacking enthusiasm, influence, or power.
2. (computing) A server that continues to serve ongoing requests while refusing new ones, allowing for a smooth shutdown.

lame duck v

1. (transitive)
   1. Followed by the dummy pronoun it: to behave in the manner of a lame duck (noun senses).
      1. Especially of a machine, vehicle, etc.: to operate poorly or slowly; to falter.
      2. (often politics) To continue in a job, office, etc., during the remainder of a term there, while lacking enthusiasm, influence, or power.
   2. (dated) To help or look after (someone) who is or appears to be unable to function without assistance; also, to treat (someone) as helpless, ineffective, or inefficient; to mollycoddle, to pamper.
2. (intransitive) To behave in the manner of a lame duck (noun senses).

☞ Today is the day after Election Day for the 2026 United States elections.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/November_4

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pez_ballesta_ondulado_(Balistapus_undulatus),_mar_Rojo,_Egipto,_2023-04-15,_DD_45.jpg

Description:

Orange-lined triggerfish (Balistapus undulatus), Red Sea, Egypt. This demersal triggerfish has a maximum body size of about 30 centimetres (12 in) and is found across the Indo-western Pacific East Africa, Red Sea and Japan, typically in coral reefs ecosystems, coral lagoons, and external reef slopes within this area. Within coral reefs, the orange-lined triggerfish are more versatile than other triggerfish species and can be found at depths up to 50 metres (160 ft), although studies have found that they prefer depths of 2 to 8 metres (6 ft 7 in to 26 ft 3 in). It's an omnivorous feeder that can, because of its strong and heavy teeth, tackle a variety of benthic prey like cnidarians, molluscs, ctenophores, crustaceans, other fish, algae, and echinoderms. This species in particular, given its broad diet and distribution, is a crucial component in coral reef ecosystems through top-down control and especially through consumption of sea-urchin.

The character structure of modern man, who reproduces a six-thousand-year-old patriarchal authoritarian culture is typified by characterological armoring against his inner nature and against the social misery which surrounds him. This characterolgical armoring of the character is the basis of isolation, indigence, craving for authority, fear of responsibility, mystic longing, sexual misery, and neurotically impotent rebelliousness.

— Wilhelm Reich

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/November_3%2C_2026

myonymy n 🔊

1. (anatomy, obsolete, rare) A nomenclature of the muscles.

☞ The American singer Shirley Ellis released her song “The Name Game” this month in 1964.

A muscleman, seen from the front. Engraving, 1713, after a w Wellcome V0007795.jpg

A 1713 woodcut showing the muscles, numbered and labelled, of a male human being.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/November_3

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snow-covered_Saint-Charles_Cemetery_6.jpg

Description:

Saint-Charles Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Quebec City. Today is All Souls' Day.

Surely only correct understanding could lead to correct action.

— Lois McMaster Bujold

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/November_2%2C_2026

deadname v 🔊

1. (transitive) To refer to (someone, especially a transgender person who has changed their name) by a previous name.
2. (intransitive) To refer to someone, especially a transgender person who has changed their name, by a previous name.

deadname n

1. (especially LGBTQ) A previous name of a person (especially a transgender person) who has since changed their name.

☞ The American singer Shirley Ellis released her song “The Name Game” this month in 1964.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/November_2

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Esgl%C3%A9sia_Santa_Margalida_-_Santa_Margalida_-_Mallorca_-_stained-glass_windows.jpg

Description:

The twelve stained-glass windows of the Església Santa Margalida (Santa Margalida, Majorca, Spain) depicting twelve saints. Today is All Saints' Day.

You let yourselves be deprived before your own eyes of the best part of your revenues; your fields are plundered, your homes robbed, your family heirlooms taken away. You live in such a way that you cannot claim a single thing as your own; and it would seem that you consider yourselves lucky to be loaned your property, your families, and your very lives.

— Étienne de La Boétie

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/November_1%2C_2026

metonymy n 🔊

1. (rhetoric)
   1. (uncountable) The use of a single characteristic or part of a concept, object, or phenomenon to identify the whole, or a related thing; also (semantics) the process of semantic association involved in interpreting or producing this.
   2. (countable) Synonym of metonym (“a term which identifies a concept, object, or phenomenon from a single characteristic or part of it, or from a related thing”).
2. (by extension, countable) A thing which is used to represent or symbolize something else; a representation, a symbol.

☞ The American singer Shirley Ellis released her song “The Name Game” this month in 1964.

Wall Street street sign.jpg

A street sign for Wall Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.A. The use of the term Wall Street to refer to American financial institutions or financial markets as a whole is an example of metonymy (sense 1.1).

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/November_1

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graveyard_27x39_ENGLISH.png

Description:

MACS 2129-1 Galactic Graveyard: "This chillingly haunted galaxy mysteriously stopped making stars only a few billion years after the Big Bang! It became a cosmic cemetery, illuminated by the red glow of decaying stars. Dare to enter, and you might encounter the frightening corpses of exoplanets or the final death throes of once-mighty stars." NASA Exoplanet Exploration Halloween poster 2020.

Some think I have lost that poetical ardour and fire 'tis said I once had — the fact is, perhaps I have; but, instead of that, I hope I shall substitute a more thoughtful and quiet power.

— John Keats

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/October_31%2C_2026

walking corpse syndrome n 🔊

1. (psychiatry, informal) Synonym of Cotard's syndrome (“a rare mental disorder in which the patient believes they are dead (figuratively or literally), do not exist, or have lost parts of the body”).

☞ Boo! Happy Halloween!

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/October_31

I didn’t sit in my trailer thinking, "Jean-Luc Picard, you know, who am I, who is he, where does he come from, what’s he like?" No, I could walk onto the set confident that I knew how he would respond to almost any situation. Because I had absorbed him, he became me. And that was one of the things that was kind of hard about it, that he was … as was Charles Xavier. Both of them were characters I immensely admired for their morality, for their kindness, for their sensitivity, for their compassion. Even for their intellectual capacities. And so to get that close, playing Jean-Luc for all those years had a real impact on me.

— Patrick Stewart

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/October_30%2C_2026

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CH.ZG.Walchwil_Walchwilerberg_Heumoosegg_2016-10-30_OrigX-R_gp.jpg

Description:

Sunrays shining through trees and weak fog near Walchwil, Switzerland

bothy n 🔊

1. A small cottage or hut; specifically (Scotland), one often left unlocked for communal use in a remote, often mountainous, area by hikers, labourers, etc.
2. A building for workers to rest in.
3. (agriculture, historical) A building on a farm, sometimes with just one room, for (usually unmarried male) farmworkers or other labourers to live in.

☞ The Gaelic festival of Samhain, which marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, begins on the night of 31 October and extends to 1 November.

Doune Bothy - geograph.org.uk - 4000360.jpg

A bothy (sense 1) in Perthshire, Scotland, United Kingdom.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/October_30