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# Word of The Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/word-of-the-day-10/
- Published: 2024-06-30T18:15:02.000Z
- Updated: 2024-07-04T06:40:26.000Z
- Author: The Editor
- Tags: General

**Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 30, 2024 is:**

**kudos** • \\KOO-dahss\\ • *noun*  

*Kudos* refers to praise someone receives because of an act or achievement, or to fame and renown that results from an act or achievement.

// *Kudos* to everyone who helped clean up the community garden.

// The company has received *kudos* for responding so quickly to customers’ concerns.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kudos?ref=goodoil.news)

**Examples:**  

“\[Sydney\] Sweeney is not the first actor to smartly partner up with a studio, but *kudos* to her for being so transparent. Indeed, her self-branding as a [wheeler-dealer](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wheeler-dealer?ref=goodoil.news) is yet another step in her savvy journey up the industry ladder.” — David Sims, *The Atlantic*, 22 Mar. 2024

**Did you know?**  

*Kudos* looks like it means “more than one kudo,” but it didn’t begin that way. *Kudos* is one of a number of Greek-derived English nouns ending in *\-os*; like [*pathos*](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pathos?ref=goodoil.news), [*ethos*](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethos?ref=goodoil.news), and [*mythos*](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mythos?ref=goodoil.news), *kudos* is a [mass noun](https://bit.ly/4bLQ2uZ?ref=goodoil.news). There are no subdivisions in the idea of *kudos*, and the term is used with *some*, not *a*. What separates *kudos* from *pathos* and the rest, however, is that it is often interpreted as plural, with its *\-s* getting clipped off and [*kudo*](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kudo?ref=goodoil.news) being applied as a singular noun, as in “a kudo to anyone who remembers that *kudos* is not a plural noun.” It makes some sense really: other nouns for things you receive as praise—such as *congratulations*, *accolades*, *awards*, and *honors*—are plural. *Kudos* the mass noun was adopted as British university slang in the early 1800s with its still-current pronunciation of \\KOO-dahss\\, but by the 1920s *kudo* was being used as a count noun, with *kudos*, pronounced as \\KOO-dohz\\, as its plural. (We now enter [this count noun](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kudo?ref=goodoil.news) in our dictionaries.) This isn’t the first time English speakers have reinterpreted a mass noun as a plural. In Middle English one could only put “some pease” on a plate the way we put “some butter” on bread; eventually the mass noun *pease* was understood to be plural, and one pea could be enjoyed all on its own.