Word of the Day:

January 14, 2022

gloss

verb GLAHSS

What it Means

Gloss means "to provide a brief explanation of a difficult or obscure word or expression" or, generally, "to explain or interpret."

// The text of the book is relatively jargon-free and most of the technical vocabulary has been glossed.

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Gloss in Context

"Glossing the process, [Janelle Shane] told me, 'As the algorithm generates text, it predicts the next character based on the previous characters—either the seed text, or the text it has generated already.'"— Jacob Brogan, Slate, 9 May 2017

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Did You Know?

The verb gloss, referring to a brief explanation, comes from Greek glôssa, meaning "tongue," "language," or "obscure word." There is also the familiar phrase gloss over, meaning "to deal with (something) too lightly or not at all." That gloss is related to Germanic glosen, "to glow or shine," and comes from the noun gloss, which in English can refer to a shine on a surface or to a superficial attractiveness that is easily dismissed.