dedication

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 7, 2024 is: dedication \ded-ih-KAY-shun\ noun Dedication refers to devotion, loyalty, or commitment to a person or cause. It can also refer to a message at the beginning of a book, song, etc., that expresses affection or gratitude for someone, or to a ceremony to mark the official completion or opening of something, such as a building. // It took a lot of hard work and dedication, but we managed to finish the project on time. // Her novel includes a brief dedication to her family. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dedication) Examples: “Friday and Saturday nights at the Whistle Stop, the Robert McCoy Trio performed two sets of drowsy, free-form jazz, a musical complement to the watered-down drinks that the bartender Lonnie served with amiable dedication.” — Colson Whitehead, Crook Manifesto: A Novel, 2023 Did you know? This one goes out to the word nerds we love. A simple word to occupy your time, but one dedicated to serving English users’ needs since the 14th century. Now that’s dedication! Dedication was first used for the solemn act of [dedicating](https://bit.ly/3zoCmIk) something, such as a calendar day or a church, to a deity or to a sacred use. The word hasn’t lost its religion in this respect; this sense is still very much in use today. But just as the verb dedicate (“to devote to the worship of a divine being”) has gained additional secular meanings over the centuries, so has dedication. By the 17th century it was being used for the act of devoting time and energy to a particular purpose (as when a band reveals its dedication to music by constantly rehearsing) as well as to a name or message [prefixed](https://bit.ly/4duxsaR) to a literary, musical, or artistic production in tribute to a person, cause, or really any part of life’s rich pageant. Nowadays, dedication commonly indicates the quality of being loyal or devoted to a cause, ideal, or purpose.