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A.Word.A.Day--mononym mononym (MON-uh-nim) noun A term or name consisting of one word only. For example, Madonna (pop star). [From Greek mono- (one) + -onym (word, name).] "Hundreds of kids are gathered along a gentle hill by a soccer field at George Mason University. The U.S. women's soccer team has just finished a long practice on a day so hot you half expect the black spots to melt off the ball. But no one wants to go home. They have all come here to see Mia Hamm. `Meeee-aaaa!' the girls squeal. It must be a sound Mia hears in her sleep. Mia, by the way, is a mononym now. Just like Brazilian soccer great Pele, no last name is needed." Kelly Whiteside; Mia Mania / Like Pele, Mia Hamm Has Become a One-name Phenomenon in the World of Soccer; Newsday (New York); Jul 6, 1999. "That was from Morissette's first second album, 1992's Now Is the Time, an out-of-print disc from north of the border, released when she was still an overly made-up, severely bejeweled Canadian teen star using the mononym of Alanis." Chris Willman; The Second Coming of Alanis; Entertainment Weekly (New York); Nov 6, 1998. This week's theme: words to describe words. X-Bonus The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

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