preeminent

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 30, 2026 is: preeminent \pree-EM-uh-nunt\ adjective Preeminent is a formal word used to describe someone or something more important, skillful, or successful than their counterparts or peers. It is used synonymously with [outstanding](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/outstanding) and [supreme](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supreme). // She's the preeminent chef in a city renowned for its cuisine. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/preeminent) Examples: "In this warmly engaging intellectual biography, [author Paul R.] Viotti traces the life and ideas of [Kenneth Waltz](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kenneth-N-Waltz), a preeminent figure in post–World War II international relations scholarship." — G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs, 16 Dec. 2025 Did you know? What is noteworthy about the following sentence? "Mount [Kilimanjaro](https://www.britannica.com/place/Kilimanjaro) is a prominent eminence on the Tanzanian landscape." You very likely recognized two words that are closely related to preeminent: [prominent](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prominent) and [eminence](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eminence). All three words are rooted in the Latin verb stem -minēre, which is taken to mean "to stand out" though there is no record of its use without a prefix. [Mount](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mount) also deserves an honorable mention: it comes from the Latin mont- or mons, meaning "mountain," which is understood to share a common ancestor with -minēre. Mount leads us in turn to [paramount](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paramount), a word closely related in meaning to preeminent.