The New Twelfth Edition
America's Most Trusted Dictionary,
Extensively Revised & Redesigned
Arriving November 18, 2025
For the first time in over twenty years,
and only the twelfth time since 1898, Merriam-Webster has published a new edition of its iconic Collegiate Dictionary.
Complete with thumb notches and a deep red cover,
weighing almost five pounds, the Twelfth Edition will be released on November 18, 2025. It's available now for pre-order.
Thoroughly updated and redesigned for students, professionals, and word lovers,
the Twelfth Edition features over 5,000 new words (including cold brew, farm-to-table, rizz, and dad bod), 1,000 new phrases and idioms, enhanced entries for the top lookups, and more than 20,000 additional usage examples.
The new Collegiate also introduces curated word lists
(e.g., "Words From the 1990s" and "Words for Things That Often Go Unnamed"), expanded usage guidance, and fascinating word histories (e.g., calculate comes from the Latin for "pebble," because Romans used little stones for addition and subtraction). And readers will still find the classic line drawings—from a friendly looking aardvark to a prickly zoea ("a free swimming planktonic larval form of many decapod crustaceans").
For generations, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has been an essential reference source,
consulted, gifted, and cherished by millions of readers. That legacy continues with the Twelfth Edition.