obverse

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 18, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>obverse</strong> &#149; \AHB-verss\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>1 :</strong> the side of a coin or currency note bearing the chief <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/device">device</a> and lettering; <em>broadly</em> <strong>:</strong> a front or principal surface</p> <p><strong>2 :</strong> a counterpart having the opposite orientation or force; <em>also</em> <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/opposite#h2">opposite</a></p> <p><strong>3 :</strong> a proposition <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infer">inferred</a> immediately from another by denying the opposite of what the given proposition affirms</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>The artist of the medal designed an <em>obverse</em> graced with a profile portrait and a reverse adorned with a pictorial scene.</p> <p>"The coins have always had a version of a portrait of George Washington featured on the <em>obverse</em> or the 'heads' side and like in 2020, they have minted five different designs on the coin's reverse or tails side…." — Laura Tennant, <em>The Reno (Nevada) Gazette-Journal</em>, 22 July 2020</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heads%20or%20tails">Heads or tails</a>? If you called heads, <em>obverse</em> is the word for you. Since the 17th century, we've been using <em>obverse</em> for the front side of coins (usually the side depicting the head or bust of a prominent person). The opposite of this sense of <em>obverse</em> is <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reverse#h3">reverse</a></em>, the back or <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tails">tails</a> side of a coin. Since the 19th century, <em>obverse</em> has re