Word of the Day : April 9, 2018

maladroit \mal-uh-DROYT\ adjective

Definition

: lacking skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations : inept

Did You Know?

To understand the origin of maladroit, you need to put together some Middle French and Old French building blocks. The first is the word mal, meaning "bad," and the second is the phrase a droit, meaning "properly." You can parse the phrase even further into the components a, meaning "to" or "at," and droit, meaning "right, direct, or straight." Middle French speakers put those pieces together as maladroit to describe the clumsy among them, and English speakers borrowed the word intact back in the 17th century. Its opposite, of course, is adroit, which we adopted from the French in the same century.

Build your vocabulary! Get Word of the Day in your inbox every day.

Test Your Vocabulary



  Name that Thing: Toys and Games Edition








    Name that thing:




                                  go
                                  reversi
                                  Chinese checkers
                                  pente








    Test your vocabulary with our 10-question quiz!
    TAKE THE QUIZ






    Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.
    TAKE THE QUIZ

Aired April 9, 2018

All Merriam-Webster content is available at www.merriam-webster.com