Merriam-Webster’s additions to its online dictionary include “looksmaxxing”

Merriam-Webster is desperate for the kids’ attention. The oldest dictionary publisher in the US announced yesterday that it would add 1,395 new definitions to its online dictionary, with some also going into the next print edition. The additions include “looksmaxxing” and “Sunday scaries,” among other internet lingo.

This year’s add-ons outpace the 1,000 new entries that the dictionary company typically introduces each year, perhaps a sign that we are all talking too much. There’s the same healthy mix of social media slang, like “cuffing season” and “crashout,” but also less-online terms like “Mandela Effect” and “superfood.”

• The tech industry got a bunch of its trendy buzzwords in, like “vibe coding,” “uncanny valley,” and “AGI” (artificial general intelligence).
• Some updates were definitional additions, like for “compute,” which the dictionary now also considers a noun.

But the data suggests that people don’t want “Rickroll” in the dictionary, probably because they are embarrassed by how many times they’ve been Rickrolled. In a survey of 1,524 people in the US, 61% said they didn’t want to see slang like “6-7” or “skibidi” in Merriam-Webster, according to language-learning platform Preply.—MM