Here’s the word on words.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary is vocab-maxing with a staggering 1,400 new words added to its book to help you crush your Scrabble opponents. If you have ever seen an influencer “looksmaxxing” or someone talking about their “Sunday scaries” on TikTok, the iconic publisher now has official definitions to help.
Merriam-Webster’s new lot of definitions reflects terms and meanings that have gained widespread popularity and offer a colorful window into modern culture. The publisher is calling this latest batch of additions a total “glow-up” — referencing one of the brand-new internet terms added.
Some of the additions have been around for decades, leaving word nerds shocked they weren’t enshrined sooner. Others are trendy internet slang terms that exploded into the mainstream only a few years ago.
“How did it take ‘Rickroll’ 20 years to make it in, but looksmaxxing is already there?” questioned an Instagram user. “Rickroll” refers to the concept of tricking someone into hearing the song “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley.
Merriam-Webster highlighted seven of the buzziest new additions in a recent Instagram spotlight.
Three of the most-searched additions are Xennial (someone born in the late 1970s or early-to-mid 1980s), yacht rock (smooth ’70s and ’80s soft rock), and limerence (that blissful, fleeting honeymoon-phase infatuation).
Viral internet slang and social media staples also made the cut, including “looksmaxxing,” “Sunday scaries,” “California sober,” and the “Mandela Effect.” One Instagrammer accused the dictionary of providing an inaccurate “California sober” definition, writing, “How does a dictionary screw up a definition? California Sober does not include alcohol.”
Rounding out the release, Merriam-Webster credited online culture for several other key entries, officially inducting terms like “parasocial,” “Rickroll,” and “meme coin.”
Despite some of these terms originating as online slang, Merriam-Webster explains that a word earns its spot in the dictionary once it is widely used and universally understood. Continued use of a word catches the eye of lexicographers and dictionary editors, and once English speakers “decide we need” it, it stands a strong chance of being enshrined.
Dictionary editors read actively to track how language evolves and spot vocabulary entering mainstream life that was not always normalized—pointing to historical additions like “bucket list” and “sexting” as prime examples.
Every real-world example of a word becomes a citation, complete with its context and source, which is entered into a searchable database that serves as the foundation for dictionary editors’ research.
With nearly 17 million citations on file, editors search through databases evaluating three core criteria before adding a word: frequent use, widespread use, and meaningful use. “Frequent” means the word demonstrates staying power over time rather than being a fleeting trend, while “widespread” requires usage across diverse industries and regions.
An Instagram commenter argued that “looksmaxxing” has not been around long enough to be defined in the dictionary. “There needs to be a multi-step process to becoming an official word or phrase. They start as farm league words until they’ve been in use for x-amount of years,” the user argued.
Additionally, existing dictionary entries are updated when words take on brand-new meanings in modern usage.
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