Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 26, 2026 is confabulate. This word has two distinct meanings. Primarily, confabulate means to create false memories by inventing details to fill gaps in recollection. This usage is often seen in contexts related to memory disorders. The older, but still current, meaning of confabulate is to talk informally or to chat. This sense of the word has been in use since the early 1600s. The word's original meaning involved simply having a conversation. However, the psychological definition of fabricating memories emerged in the early 1900s. More recently, in the 2000s, confabulate has been used to describe artificial intelligence that generates false output, akin to hallucinating. The word ultimately derives from the Latin word fabula, meaning conversation or story. Fabula is also the root of words like fabulous and fable.