gravamen

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>gravamen</strong> &#149; \gruh-VAY-mun\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><em>Gravamen</em> is a formal word that refers to the significant part of a complaint or grievance.</p> <p>// The <em>gravamen</em> of Walter’s letter to the editor was that the newspaper frequently reports on the school system's failures but rarely covers its successes and improvements.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gravamen">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“The only thing worse than living under a totalitarian Communist regime is outliving one. That seems to be the half-serious <em>gravamen</em> of ‘The Interim,’ a novel published in 2000 by the East German writer Wolfgang Hilbig (1941-2007) and now translated into supple, vivid English by Isabel Fargo Cole. It’s not a completely absurd grievance. Not everyone does well with the kind of freedom afforded by the free market.” — Caleb Crain, <em>The New York Times</em>, 2 Nov. 2021</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Gravamen</em> is not a word you hear every day (even rarer is <em>gravamina</em>, the less expected of its two plural forms; <em>gravamens</em> is the other), but it does show up occasionally in modern-day publications. It comes from the Latin verb <em>gravare</em>, meaning “to burden,” and ultimately from the Latin adjective <em>gravis</em>, meaning “heavy.” Fittingly, <em>gravamen</em> refers to the part of a grievance or complaint that gives it weight or substance. In legal contexts, <em>gravamen</em> is used to refer to the grounds on which a legal action is allowed or upheld as valid. (The word is synonymous with a legal use of <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gist#legalDictionary"><em>gist</em></a> not found outside technical contexts). <em>