It's the word of the day for October 28th.
Today's word is menagerie, also pronounced menagerie and spelled M-E-N-A-G-E-R-I-E.
Menagerie is a noun.
It refers to a collection of animals kept especially to be shown to the public as well as a place where such animals are kept.
It can also refer figuratively to any varied mixture of things.
Here's the word used in a sentence from The New Yorker by Kyle Shaker.
The creatures are usually found hanging from phones or handbags or clutched as a kind of pet.
They come in a menagerie of more than 300 collectible forms.
They can be matched to a personal style or mood,
pink fur for when you're feeling flirty, glowing red eyes for a bit of an edge.
Back in the days of middle French,
menagerie meant the management of a household or farm, or a place where animals are tended.
When English speakers adopted menagerie in the 1600s,
they applied it specifically to places where wild and often also foreign animals were kept and trained for exhibition,
as well as to the animals so kept.
This second meaning was eventually generalized to refer to any varied mixture,
especially one that includes things that are strange or foreign to one's experience.
With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.