limpid

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 15, 2024 is:

limpid • \LIM-pid\ • adjective

Limpid describes things that are perfectly transparent or clear, or that are simple in style.

// Though the stream was deep, flecks and shimmers in the sand shone up through its limpid water.

// The author is known for her limpid, exacting prose.

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Examples:

"The movie’s opulent sets and Giuseppe Rotunno’s limpid cinematography transmit a palpable yearning for the gilded palaces and gala balls of a bygone era." — Mark Olsen, The Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2024

Did you know?

Let's clarify a few things about limpid. Since the early 1600s, this word has been used in English to describe things that have the soft clearness of pure water. The aquatic connection is not incidental; language scholars believe that limpid probably traces to lympha, a Latin word meaning "water." (That same Latin root is also the source of the English word lymph, the term for the pale liquid that helps maintain the body's fluid balance and that removes bacteria from tissues.) While limpid was used originally to describe liquids free of visible, cloudy material, it didn't take long for the word to gain its figurative sense of "clear and simple in style." And despite its similarity to the unrelated adjective limp—which can be used to describe writing, for example, that lacks spirit or oomph—limpid carries no such negative connotations.