Word of the Day: morass

The word morass has appeared in 47 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 14 in “What’s the Point of Your 20s? Ask the Patron Saint of Striving Youth” by Emma Goldberg:

Twenty-somethings are not short on sources of career advice. They’re told to hustle, hustle, hustle and to chill out; they’re told that their professional clocks are ticking, and also that 30 is the new 20 and they have all the time in the world.

Into that morass came Dr. Jay’s book, first published in 2012, which has since sold more than 500,000 copies and spawned book clubs, TikTok endorsements and a zealous following. Her advice falls somewhere between “there, there” and tough love: Start planning for the future, but don’t freak out. When she published a new edition in 2021, Dr. Jay found that the reach of “The Defining Decade” kept expanding, answering to 20-something confusion that is now textured with the pressures of social media and the turbulence of the pandemic. (Parents embrace it, too; Dr. Jay sometimes hears from mothers that all they asked for on Mother’s Day was for their children to read the book.)

Daily Word Challenge

Can you correctly use the word morass in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how morass can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.