anfractuous

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 1, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>anfractuous</strong> &#149; \an-FRAK-chuh-wus\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> full of windings and intricate turnings <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tortuous">tortuous</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Then, as the road resumed its <em>anfractuous</em> course, clinging to the extreme margin of this tumbled and chaotic coast, the fun began. It was impossible to count the roller-coaster climbs and downward swoops; ravines skirted; rivers ingeniously bridged; bends tight as the loops in a thumbprint; naked rockfaces; cliff-edge encounters, hundreds of feet above the ocean, each of which induced a sickly pang of vertigo." — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/magazine/the-last-father-daughter-road-trip.html">Jonathan Raban, <em>The New York Times</em>, 10 June 2011</a></p> <p>"Readers who require a single conflict or steady linear progression may find <em>Lurkers</em>' <em>anfractuous</em> structure unwieldy, but there's something cinematic about how <em>Lurkers</em> works. The novel recalls the winding yet interconnected narratives of Robert Altman films like <em>Nashville</em> (1975) and <em>Short Cuts</em> (1993)." — <a href="https://www.popmatters.com/sandi-tan-lurkers">John A. Riley, <em>PopMatters</em>, 1 Mar. 2021</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Plots and paths can be anfractuous. They twist and turn but do not break. Never mind that the English word comes ultimately from the Latin verb <em>frangere</em>, meaning "to break." (<em>Frangere</em> is also the source of <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fracture">fracture</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fraction">fraction</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.merriam-web