Word of the Day

: April 28, 2025

alacrity

noun uh-LAK-ruh-tee

What It Means

Alacrity refers to a quick and cheerful readiness to do something.

// She accepted the invitation to go on the trip with an alacrity that surprised her parents, who had assumed she wouldn’t be interested.

See the entry >

alacrity in Context

“Antipater, about to mount his horse, saw Pollio and Sameas so close to him that the sleeve of Sameas almost touched his own in the crush. … Antipater had graciously invited the two to view his new grandson and sip a cup of wine cooled by snow brought from Mount Hermon. The two accepted with alacrity.” — Zora Neale Hurston, The Life of Herod the Great, 2025

Did You Know?

“I have not that alacrity of spirit / Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have,” says William Shakespeare’s King Richard III in the play that bears his name. Alas and alack, Richard! Alacrity comes from the Latin word alacer, meaning “lively” or “eager,” and suggests physical quickness coupled with eagerness or enthusiasm. Thus, a spirit that lacks alacrity—like Richard III’s—is in the doldrums, in need of a little (to use a much less formal word than alacrity) get-up-and-go.