zeitgeist

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 31, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>zeitgeist</strong> &#149; \TSYTE-gyste\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><em>Zeitgeist</em> refers to the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.</p> <p>// Although set in the 1980s, the movie reflects the feelings and <em>zeitgeist</em> of today.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zeitgeist">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"The lead single and opening track, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' has been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify. Its accompanying music video has been viewed more than 1 billion times on YouTube. 'Nevermind' is the defining album of an era and generation, an embodiment of the cultural <em>zeitgeist</em> of the 1990s." — <em>Hickory Daily Record</em> (North Carolina), 28 Nov. 2021</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Scholars have long maintained that each era has a unique spirit, a nature or climate that sets it apart from all other epochs. In German, such a spirit is known as <em>Zeitgeist</em>, from the German words <em>Zeit</em>, meaning "time," and <em>Geist</em>, meaning "spirit" or "ghost."</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>