indoctrinate

indoctrinate

From Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day by Merriam-Webster

April 20, 2026 · 2 min

About this episode

This episode discusses the word 'indoctrinate' and its implications in teaching and belief systems.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 20, 2026 is: indoctrinate • \in-DAHK-truh-nayt\  • verb To indoctrinate someone is to teach them to fully accept the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of a particular group while categorically rejecting other ideas, opinions, and beliefs. // The video series attempts to indoctrinate younger audiences with ahistorical and unscientific ideas. See the entry > Examples: "They worry about being 'cut off' from poetry, particularly by the jobs that they need to sustain their daily lives and that they fear may quietly indoctrinate them into a contrary value system." — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker , 2 Feb. 2026 Did you know? Indoctrinate means " brainwash " in most contexts today, but its meaning wasn't always so negative. When the verb first appeared in English in the 17th century, it simply meant "to teach"—a meaning linked closely to its source, the Latin verb docēre , which also means "to teach." (Other offspring of docēre include docile , doctor , document , and, of course, doctrine ). By the 19th century, indoctrinate was being used in the sense of teaching someone to fully accept only the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of a…

Topics covered

  • indoctrinate
  • language
  • education

Keywords

  • teach
  • beliefs
  • ideas
  • opinions

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