Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day is ‘Amok’
Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day is “amok.”
The online dictionary’s Friday selection follows a week that saw violent rioters encouraged by the president storm the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to stop Congress from formally recognizing Democrat Joe Biden — who won the 2020 election — as the nation’s next president.
The 190-year-old literary reference resource lists two definitions for the adverb. Merriam-Webster’s first definition of “amok” is “in a violently raging, wild, or uncontrolled manner.”
Its second definition of the word is “in a murderously frenzied state.”
On Wednesday, thousands of right-wing activists descended upon Washington, D.C., to undermine the results of the Nov. 3 election, where Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump by more than 9 million votes. Members of that group ran amok in the Capitol building, where feces were spread throughout its halls and a Capitol Police officer was killed.
Amok is pronounced “uh MUK.”
Lawmakers have considered impeaching the president, again, to limit his ability to incite more chaos before leaving office Jan. 20. Social media also suspended President Trump’s accounts after he continued to promote the baseless conspiracy theories motivating the raging, wild and out of control mobs that support him.
