gamut

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 21, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>gamut</strong> &#149; \GAM-ut\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p>A gamut is a range or series of related things. When we say that something “runs the gamut,” we are saying that it encompasses an entire range of related things.</p> <p>// I adore licorice, mints, lollipops, candy corn—the whole <em>gamut</em> of <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/penny%20candy">penny candy</a>. </p> <p>// On that fateful day, her emotions ran the <em>gamut</em> from joy to despair.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gamut">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“A PEN America paper, published last September, records 2,532 instances of book banning in thirty-two states between July, 2021, and June, 2022. The challenges are spread throughout the country but cluster in Texas and Florida. Their targets are diverse, running the <em>gamut</em> from earnestly dorky teen love stories and picture books about penguins to Pulitzer-winning works of fiction.” — Katy Waldman, <em>The New Yorker</em>, 10 Mar. 2023</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>With the song “Do-Re-Mi,” the 1965 musical film <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Sound-of-Music-film-by-Wise"><em>The Sound of Music</em></a> (adapted from the 1958 stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein) introduced millions of non-musicians to <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/solfege">solfège</a>, the singing of the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sol-fa%20syllables">sol-fa syllables</a>—<em>do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti</em>—to teach the tones of a musical scale. Centuries earlier, however, the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/do#h3"><em>do</em></a> in “Do-Re-Mi” was known as <em>ut</em>. Indeed, the first note on th