Word of the Day

: July 28, 2008

Xanadu

noun ZAN-uh-doo

What It Means

: an idyllic, exotic, or luxurious place

Xanadu in Context

To Arthur, the beach house was a Xanadu, the perfect spot for the romantic tropical vacation he had dreamed of for years.

Did You Know?

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree." Those lines are from the poem "Kubla Khan" (published in 1816) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge's fantastic description of an exotic utopia fired public imagination and ultimately contributed to the transition of "Xanadu" from a name to a generalized term for an idyllic place. The Xanadu in the poem was inspired by Shang-tu, the summer residence of Mongolian general and statesman Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan). You might also recognize "Xanadu" as the name of the fantastic estate in Orson Welles's 1941 film Citizen Kane.