Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 26, 2026 is:
 
 
 
 
 oaf &#149; \OHF\&nbsp; &#149; noun
 Oaf is used to refer to someone as big, clumsy, and slow-witted.

// The main character starts the movie as a tactless, bumbling oaf who is constantly causing offense to everyone around them, but eventually learns a valuable lesson about kindness and courtesy.

<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oaf">See the entry ></a>
 
 
 
 Examples:
 “Let me give you a rose. Well, just an imaginary rose. ‘What?’ ‘What’s the occasion?’ ‘What for?’ Because I want to participate in an act of kindness. ... It’s impossible, even for a blustering, clumsy oaf like me, to ignore the positive effects of a rose in hand.” — Anthony Campbell, The Advertiser-Gleam (Guntersville, Alabama), 24 Oct. 2025
 
 
 
 Did you know?
 In long-ago England, it was believed that elves sometimes secretly exchanged their babies for human babies—a belief that served as an explanation when parents found themselves with a baby that failed to meet expectations or desires: these parents believed that their real baby had been stolen by elves and that a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/changeling">changeling</a> had been left in its place. The label for such a child was auf, or alfe, (meaning “an elf’s or a goblin’s child”), which was later altered to form our present-day oaf. Auf is likely from the Middle English alven or elven, meaning “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/elf">elf</a>” or “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fairy">fairy</a>.” Today, the word oaf is no longer associated with babies and is instead applied to anyone who appears especially unintelligent or graceless.

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