mollify

抚慰

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

2025-09-06

1 分钟
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 6, 2025 is: mollify • MAH-luh-fye  • verb To mollify someone is to make them less angry. Mollify can also mean "to reduce in intensity." // The celebrity's statement was intended to mollify critics. // Time mollified her anger. See the entry > Examples: "The philanthropic move is likely meant to mollify angry residents who are protesting against the celebrity-filled spectacle being held in their historic backyard." — Madeleine Marr, The Miami Herald, 25 June 2025 Did you know? Mollify is particularly well-suited for referring to the action of soothing emotional distress or anger and softening hard feelings: the word comes from the Latin adjective mollis, meaning "soft." Mollis is also the root of the English adjective emollient, used to describe something (such as a hand lotion) that softens or soothes, and the noun mollusk, which refers to any one of a large group of animals (such as snails and clams) that have a soft body without a backbone and that usually live in a shell.
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  • It's the Word of the Day podcast for September 6th.

  • Today's word is mollify, spelled M-O-L-L-I-F-Y.

  • Mollify is a verb.

  • To mollify someone is to make them less angry.

  • Mollify can also mean to reduce in intensity.

  • Here's the word used in a sentence from the Miami Herald.

  • The philanthropic move is likely meant to mollify angry residents who are protesting against the celebrity-filled spectacle being held in their historic backyard.

  • The word mollify is particularly well-suited

  • for referring to the action of soothing emotional distress or anger and softening hard feelings.

  • It comes from the Latin adjective mollice, meaning soft.

  • Mollies is also the root of the English adjective immoliant,

  • used to describe something such as hand lotions that softens or soothes, and the noun mollusk,

  • which refers to any one of a large group of animals, such as snails and clams,

  • that have a soft body without a backbone and that usually live in a shell.

  • With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

  • Visit MiriamWebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.