From “Rizz” To “Thirst Trap”: Merriam-Webster Adds 690 New Words to the Dictionary

Merriam-Webster Dictionary has added 690 new words for September.

‘Signs of a healthy language include words being created, words being borrowed from other languages, and new meanings being given to existing words,’ Merriam-Webster said in its announcement of the additions. ‘Based on our most recent research, we are pleased to inform you that English is very (very!) healthy.’

The new additions range from internet slang to AI jargon, such as ‘doggo’ (noun, slang for dog), ‘UAP’ (noun or abbreviation for ‘unidentified aerial phenomenon’), and ‘generative AI’ (noun, ‘artificial intelligence that is capable of generating new content’).

Some of the new additions reflect what's going on with the climate and environment today, such as 'forever chemical' (noun, a 'toxic substance' that lasts for years in the environment) and 'rewild' (verb, 'to increase biodiversity and restore the natural processes of an ecosystem').

For those who are terminally online, there's ‘doomscroll’ (verb, ‘to spend excessive time online scrolling’) and ‘edgelord’ (noun, ‘someone who makes wildly dark and exaggerated statements with the intent of shocking others’).

Terms related to video games, like ‘nerf’ (verb, 'to reduce the effectiveness of something') and 'non-player character' (noun, ‘a character in a video game that does not represent and cannot be manipulated by a player’), are also on the list.