alacrity

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 28, 2025 is: alacrity \uh-LAK-ruh-tee\ noun Alacrity refers to a quick and cheerful readiness to do something. // She accepted the invitation to go on the trip with an alacrity that surprised her parents, who had assumed she wouldn’t be interested. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alacrity) Examples: “Antipater, about to mount his horse, saw Pollio and Sameas so close to him that the sleeve of Sameas almost touched his own in the crush. … Antipater had graciously invited the two to view his new grandson and sip a cup of wine cooled by snow brought from Mount Hermon. The two accepted with alacrity.” — [Zora Neale Hurston](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Zora-Neale-Hurston), The Life of Herod the Great, 2025 Did you know? “I have not that alacrity of spirit / Nor cheer of mind that I was [wont](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wont) to have,” says William Shakespeare’s King Richard III in [the play that bears his name](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Richard-III-play-by-Shakespeare). [Alas](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alas) and [alack](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alack), Richard! Alacrity comes from the Latin word alacer, meaning “lively” or “eager,” and suggests physical quickness coupled with eagerness or enthusiasm. Thus, a spirit that lacks alacrity—like Richard III’s—is in the [doldrums](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doldrums), in need of a little (to use a much less formal word than alacrity) [get-up-and-go](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/get-up-and-go).