facsimile

The useful part

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 16, 2026 is: facsimile • \fak-SIM-uh-lee\ • noun A facsimile is an exact copy of something. The word facsimile is also still sometimes used to refer to a system of transmitting and reproducing graphic matter, such as printed text or photos, though the word fax is more common. See the entry > Examples: "The installation could be read as an invocation of [Widline] Cadet's mother's Washington Heights apartment.

How it works

• Like much of Cadet's work, the installation, titled Altar #2, hovers between reality and fantasy." — Elly Fishman, Vogue, 8 May 2026 Did you know?
• … 'For Haitian families,' she says, 'the living room is a sacred place.' And yet, this is no mere facsimile of a Haitian living room.
• The facsimile machine (or fax machine) has long been an office staple, but its name is much, much older.
• Fac simile is a Latin phrase meaning "make alike." English speakers began using facsimile to mean "an exact copy" in the late 1600s.
• In this sense, a facsimile might be a handwritten or hand-drawn copy, or even a copy of a painting or statue.

What to take from it

(Today, we also use the phrase "a reasonable facsimile" for a copy that is fairly close but not exact.) In the 1800s, people developed facsimile technology that could reproduce printed material via telegraph. Now, of course, we use telephone lines or wireless technology, and we usually call the resulting facsimile a fax.

Details worth keeping

// The forged painting was an impressive facsimile of the original. // The documents can be sent by facsimile to the number below.