nugatory

nugatory

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

April 19, 2026 · 2 min

About this episode

This episode discusses the word 'nugatory', which means of little or no consequence.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 19, 2026 is: nugatory • \NOO-guh-tor-ee\  • adjective Something described as nugatory is of little or no consequence. In law, nugatory describes something (such as a statute or agreement) without operative legal effect. // Most of the criticism of the film in the weeks since its release has been nugatory nonsense. // This new contract renders the previous agreement nugatory . See the entry > Examples: “Public outrage, fanned by the press, did not engage with the work but focused instead on taxpayers’ money having been squandered on a worthless ‘pile of bricks.’ In fact, the purchase price of [pounds sterling] 2,297 was nugatory , but the issue was never really about price but about rejecting the new and the challenging in art.” — Art Monthly , 1 Dec. 2025 Did you know? Just because nugatory isn’t the most common word in the English language doesn’t mean it’s trifling . Rather, nugatory is literally trifling because the two words are synonymous, as in “comments too nugatory to merit attention.” Nugatory first appeared in English in the 17th century; it comes from the Latin adjective nugatorius , which can mean not only…

Topics covered

  • language
  • law
  • consequence

Keywords

  • nugatory
  • adjective
  • legal effect

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Pulitzer Prize

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