1,400 New Words and Definitions Added to Merriam-Webster.com
Including vibe coding, yacht rock, parasocial, and Mandela Effect
We’ve just added 1,400 new words and definitions, a glow-up to our iconic dictionary.
The new entries reflect words and meanings that have demonstrated widespread use over time, offering a window into the world today.
Among the new entries, social media culture provides the well-defined looksmaxxing, the unrequited parasocial, the ever-dangerous Rickroll (that link is harmless, we promise), and for some investors the potentially more dangerous meme coin. Congratulations to promposal for getting picked, and to letterboxing for a new digital sense to go with its 19th-century pastime.
Technology brings us compute as a noun, (a resource tech companies increasingly want more of), along with vibe coding and AGI (artificial general intelligence). It also brings us uncanny valley, that creepy feeling that results from something artificial appearing almost—but not quite—human.
Edible newcomers include superfood, “a food (such as salmon, broccoli, or blueberries) that is rich in nutrients,” and less super foods such as cake pop. More savory additions include shishito, “a slender usually mild chili pepper of East Asia,” and a bao bun that might be delicious with chili crisp.
Other words that identify how we live and feel today include cuffing season, “a time of the year when people who are not married or in a relationship begin looking for a short-term romantic partner to spend the colder months of the year with,” plus the far less cozy Sunday scaries and crashout. Other new additions range from the frantic whack-a-mole, which keeps popping up in the language, to the mellow yacht rock and California sober.
The dictionary has put on shapewear, groomed its definition of neckbeard (the fur itself and the supposed culture of those who have it), and acknowledged copium without ingesting any. Finally, readers who feel certain that Merriam-Webster hasn’t defined trash panda might simply be experiencing the Mandela Effect.
To learn about our editorial process, here’s how new words get into the dictionary.
