visage

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 20, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>visage</strong> &#149; \VIZ-ij\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>1 :</strong> the face, countenance, or appearance of a person or sometimes an animal</p> <p><strong>2 :</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aspect">aspect</a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/appearance">appearance</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"But aside from the <em>visage</em> of Grumpy Cat—who may not have been grumpy at all—feline faces don't tell us much about how cats feel."— <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/11/30/cats-do-have-facial-expressions-you-probably-cant-read-them/">Karin Brulliard, <em>The Washington Post</em>, 30 Nov. 2019</a></p> <p>"Looking for his own <em>visage</em> in the glass, he caught his shimmering outline and checked that his tie was right…." — <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UF2oAgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA130#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">Peter Mountford, <em>The Dismal Science</em>, 2014</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>The word <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/face">face</a></em> may be a pretty generic word, but it has several high-flown synonyms. <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/physiognomy">Physiognomy</a></em>, for instance, refers to facial features thought to reveal qualities of temperament or character. "I thought I could detect in his physiognomy a mind owning better qualities than his father ever possessed," Emily Brontë writes in <em>Wuthering Heights</em>. <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/countenance">Countenance</a></em> is often used to refer to the face as an indication of mood or emotion, as Bram Stoker types in <em>Dracula</em>: "Mina struggled hard to keep her brave countenance." <em>