It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 12th.

Today's word is Multifarius, spelled M-U-L-T-I-F-A-R-I-O-U-S.

Multifarius is an adjective.

Something described as multifarious has great diversity or variety, or is made up of many and

various kinds of things.

Multifarius is a formal word and a synonym of the word, diverse.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the San Diego Union Tribune.

Over the course of his multifarious career,

musician Pat Mathini has led numerous bands,

more than a few of whose members later became band leaders in their own right.

Before the late 16th century appearance of the word multifarious,

English speakers used another word similar in form

and meaning multifary, meaning in many ways. It appeared and disappeared in the 15th century. Before either of

the English words existed, there was the medieval Latin word multifarious, from the Latin adverb multifariam, meaning in many places.

Multi, as you may know, means many, and is used to form, well, multifarious English words, from

multicultural to multimillion. The word omnipharious, meaning of all varieties, forms, or kinds, is a relative of multifarious,

and created with omni, meaning all, rather than multi.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sakalowski.

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