The Word of the Day for March 04, 2008 is: clat ? ay-KLAH ? noun 1 : ostentatious display : publicity *2 : dazzling effect : brilliance 3 a : brilliant or conspicuous success b : praise, applause Example Sentence: The young actor played the role with such clat that he was nominated for several awards. Did you know? "?clat" burst onto the scene in English in the 17th century. The word derives from French, where it can mean "splinter" (the French idiom "voler en clats" means "to fly into pieces") as well as "burst" ("un clat du rire" means "a burst of laughter"), among other things. The "burst" sense is reflected in the earliest English sense of the word, meaning "ostentatious display or publicity." This sense found its own idiomatic usage in the phrase "to make an clat," which at one time meant "to create a sensation." By the 1740s, "clat" took on the additional meaning of "applause or acclamation," as in "The performer was received with great clat." *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.