This week’s theme
Words from science that have different senses in everyday use

This week’s words
optics
epicenter
quantum
theory
entropy

This week's comments
AWADmail 652

Next week's theme
New words (relatively speaking)

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(EN-truh-pee)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A measure of the disorder in a system.
2. The natural tendency of things to decline into disorder.
3. Disorder, randomness, or chaos.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek en- (in) + trope (transformation). Ultimately from the Indo-European root trep- (to turn), which also gave us troubadour, tropic, contrive, and tropism. Earliest documented use: 1868.

USAGE:

“In the more than 15 years since it was decorated by Marc Charbonnet ... the Fox-Pollan residence had gradually become a monument to entropy.”
Jesse Kornbluth; Family Wise; Architectural Digest (Los Angeles); Dec 12, 2012.

See more usage examples of entropy in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: