gust

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 30, 2025 is:

gust • \GUST\  • noun

Gust refers to a sudden strong wind. It is also used figuratively for a sudden outburst of something, such as a feeling.

// Today’s weather will be windy, with gusts of up to 40 miles per hour.

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Examples:

“This subversive comedy is now a posh panto, directed by Max Webster. It gets gusts of laughter but can feel rather forced, and the joyous language is left to fend for itself.” — Robert Gore-Langton, The Mail on Sunday (London), 8 Dec. 2024

Did you know?

You’re no doubt familiar with the breezy gust meaning “a brief burst of wind.” But about a century and a half before that word first appeared in print in the late 16th century, a different gust blew onto the scene. The windy gust likely comes from a synonymous Old Norse word, gustr, whereas the older gust, which refers to the sensation of taste as well as to a feeling of enthusiastic delight, comes ultimately from gustus, the Latin word for “taste.” English speakers eventually mostly dropped that older gust, replacing it in the early 17th century with a similar gustus word borrowed from Italian: gusto is now the go-to word when you want to refer to enthusiastic and vigorous enjoyment or appreciation. You can use it with gusto.