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Jun 16, 2025

This week’s theme
Nouning verbs, verbing nouns

This week’s words
eddy

Kamchatka Coast, Russia

Photo: NASA

Previous week’s theme
Kings who became words

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Humans are multitaskers, multi-role players by design. Parenting a toddler, mentoring a colleague, DJing a birthday party, and refereeing who gets the last slice of cake.

Words, too, play multiple roles. They don’t just sit quietly in one part of speech. Some leap from noun to verb and back again. Google, host, text, medal, friend. These words don’t just work, they overwork. And we love them for it.

This week, we’re spotlighting those hard-working words of the lexicon. These are words that do double duty as both nouns and verbs. Call it the grammatical gig economy.

What noun would you love to verb? What verb would make a handsome noun? We invite you to author a response below or by email at words@wordsmith.org.

eddy

PRONUNCIATION:

(ED-ee)

MEANING:

noun:	1. A current moving contrary to the main current, especially in a circular motion, in a fluid such as air or water.
	2. trend, fashion, or opinion that runs counter to the prevailing one.
verb tr., intr.:	To move or cause to move in a circular, countercurrent motion.

ETYMOLOGY:

Probably from Old Norse itha (eddy, whirlpool). Earliest documented use: noun: 1525, verb: 1730.

USAGE:

“Though history often preserves the imprint of horror, he notes, the eddies of individual consciences are generally lost.”
Sins of the Grandfathers; The Economist (London, UK); May 20, 2023.

“The air is toxic now, and flakes of white ash have eddied into every crevice of the house.”
Claire L. Evans; Portrait Of A Worm On Fire; Wired (San Francisco, California); May/Jun 2025.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The [Nobel] prize is such an extraordinary honor. It might seem unfair, however, to reward a person for having so much pleasure over the years, asking the maize plant to solve specific problems and then watching its responses. -Barbara McClintock, scientist, Nobel laureate (16 Jun 1902-1992)

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