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\\n megillah • \\\\muh-GHIL-uh\\\\  • noun
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Megillah is slang for a long, involved story or account. Megillah can also refer to a complicated sequence of events, or it can be used as a synonym of ball of wax meaning \\u201ceverything involved in what is under consideration.\\u201d All three senses of megillah are often preceded by the adjective whole.

// Don\\u2019t worry about reciting the whole megillah from last night\\u2019s game; just give me the highlights.

// Our grandfather always made a whole megillah out of Sundays, waking up before dawn to visit yard sales, then cooking a big meal in the afternoons for our extended family.

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\\n Examples:
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\\u201cWhat\\u2019s in a middle name? Pretty much the whole megillah, for the media scion known as Kendall Logan Roy. That middle name is more than just his father\\u2019s branding\\u2014it\\u2019s the gravitational core around which Kendall\\u2019s selfhood swings. For four seasons of \\u2018Succession,\\u2019 we\\u2019ve watched the mercurial magnate\\u2019s second son and occasional heir apparent strain against his birthright, sometimes plotting to overthrow his father, other times weeping submissively into his chest.\\u201d \\u2014 Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 25 May 2023

\\n Did you know?
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Megillah comes from the Yiddish word megile, which itself comes from the Hebrew noun m\\u0115gill\\u0101h, meaning \\u201cscroll\\u201d or \\u201cvolume.\\u201d (M\\u0115gill\\u0101h is especially likely to be used in reference to the Book of Esther, which is read aloud at Purim celebrations.) It makes sense, then, that when megillah first appeared in English in the early 20th century, it referred to a story that was so long (and often tedious or complicated) that it was reminiscent of the length of the m\\u0115gill\\u0101h scrolls. The Hebrew word is serious, but the Yiddish megile can be somewhat playful, and English\\u2019s megillah has also inherited that lightheartedness.