verdant

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 5, 2026 is:

verdant • \VER-dunt\  • adjective

Verdant describes something that is green in tint or color, or green because it is covered with growing plants. Verdant can also describe a person who is inexperienced or has not yet developed good judgment.

// The golf course is noted for its tricky hazards and lush, verdant borders along its fairways.

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Examples:

“On the other side, the lusher Santa Cruz Mountains, a place of dank redwood forests, organic farming communes, and uppity vineyards, form a verdant curtain between the Valley and the ocean.” — Brian Barth, Front Street: Resistance and Rebirth in the Tent Cities of Techlandia, 2025

Did you know?

English speakers have been using verdant as a ripe synonym of green since at least the 16th century, and as a descriptive term for inexperienced or naive people since the 19th century. (By contrast, the more experienced green has colored our language since well before the 12th century, and was first applied to inexperienced people in the 16th century.) Verdant traces back to the Old French word for “green,” vert, which itself is from the Latin word viridis. Some lesser-known words for shades of green in English include prasine (“having the green color of a leek”), smaragdine (“yellowish green in color like an emerald”), and another viridis descendent, viridescent (“slightly green”).