Wiktionary:Word of the day/Archive/2025/August

1. (biblical, mythology) A vast sea monster of tremendous strength, either imaginary or real, described as the most dangerous and powerful creature in the ocean.
2. (figurative)
   1. A thing which is monstrously great in size, strength, etc. (especially a ship); also, a person with great power or wealth.
   2. (political science) Sometimes in the form Leviathan: based on the writings of Thomas Hobbes, the political state, especially a domineering and totalitarian one.
   3. (obsolete) Synonym of Satan (“the supreme evil spirit in the Abrahamic religions, who tempts humanity into sin; the Devil”).

leviathan adj

1. Very large; enormous, gargantuan.

The American author Herman Melville was born on this day in 1819. He is particularly known for his 1851 novel Moby-Dick, about the quest of Captain Ahab for vengeance against Moby Dick, a giant white sperm whale that bit off his leg on a previous voyage.

1. Capricious, impulsive, or reckless; also, bizarre, crazy, zany; or foolish, idiotic.

madcap n

1. A person who acts in a capricious, impulsive, or reckless manner.
2. (South Asia) A very foolish or irresponsible person; a fool, an idiot.
3. (obsolete, rare) An insane person; a lunatic.

1. (law) A mistake in the naming of a person or place; a misidentification.
2. (by extension)
   1. An incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading; a misname.
   2. A term which is misleading, even if technically correct.
   3. (nonstandard, proscribed) Something which is asserted not to be true; a mistaken belief, a falsehood, a myth.

misnomer v

1. (transitive) To use an incorrect, and especially misleading, name for (someone or something); to misidentify, to misname.

1. Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.
   1. Of people: disagreeing with each other; dissenting, quarrelsome.
   2. (also figurative) Of sounds: harsh, jarring; specifically (music), of musical notes or tunes: not in harmony; dissonant, inharmonious.
2. (geology, physical geography, originally US) Of a rock formation or other land feature, or its alignment: cutting across or transverse to neighbouring features.
   1. Of a coastline: having bands of different types of rock running transversely to the coast, leading to the formation of alternating bays and headlands.
3. (chiefly genetics) Of two similar subjects, especially twins: differing in some characteristic.
4. (healthcare) Ellipsis of serodiscordant (“of a couple: with one partner HIV positive and the other HIV negative”).
5. (mathematics, statistics) Of figures, etc.: having opposite signs (for example, positive and negative).

discordant n

1. (chiefly in the plural) A thing which is not in accord or harmony with one or more other things.

1. (US, rail transport, slang) The sound made by the exhaust of a steam locomotive.

1. (architecture) A mirror or pair of mirrors mounted outside a window, allowing the viewer to see along a street while remaining indoors.

The American gossip columnist Louella Parsons, known as the “Queen of Hollywood gossip”, was born on this day in 1881.

1. (transitive) Chiefly in scarper the letty: to depart quickly or run away from (a place); to flee.
2. (intransitive) To depart quickly; to escape, to flee, to run away.

scarper n

1. Chiefly in do a scarper: an act of departing quickly or running away; an escape, a flight.