It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for March 8th.

Today's word is Veltanshawung, spelled as it would be in German, capital W, E L T, A N, S, C, H, A, U, N, G. Veltam Shawang is a noun. A Veltam Shawang is a worldview. In other words, a comprehensive conception

or apprehension of the world,

especially from a specific standpoint.

The word is typically capitalized.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the New Zealand Southland Times.

Writer Martin Amos's subject matter was unforgiving,

the degradation of individual values,

and the incorporation of greed, indifference, and cruelty into public morality.

But so intense was his focus and so forensic the methodology he brought to his task, that each

novel revealed some new facet of his ever darkening Velt Anchelon.

The German word Velt Anchelon literally means world view.

It combines Velt, meaning world, and Anshawang, meaning view.

You might have noticed this word's resemblance to another German borrowing,

Veltzmerz, meaning world weariness or world pain.

When English speakers first adopted Val danshawang in the mid-19th century, it referred to a philosophical view or apprehension of the universe and

this sense is still the most widely used. It can also describe a more general

ideology or philosophy of life.

Note that the word is typically capitalized in English

as all nouns are in German.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. Visit Marion Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.