More Than 300 Words Were Just Added to Dictionary.com—Here Are the Ones You Need to Know
Updated: Feb. 16, 2024
Slow fashion, sound bath, cozy and climate breakdown are just a few of the new words Dictionary.com is helping us define
Global boiling, fire tornado, circular fashion and Barbiecore. What do these seemingly unrelated words have in common? They’re all part of more than 300 new words added to Dictionary.com this year—and you’re going to want to know what they mean if you don’t already.
Dictionaries, of course, help people navigate the ins and outs of modern terms, but that’s not all. “The intersection of language, learning and culture is boundless, and we recognize that words have the power to shape thoughts, bridge gaps and reflect our ever-evolving society,” said John Kelly, vice president of editorial at Dictionary.com, in an official release. “Our semi-annual New Words announcement is meant to support a greater understanding of where language is, where it might go next—and why the constantly expanding universe of words matters for our everyday lives.”
Typically, the online dictionary adds hundreds of new words and revisions of words—including informal, slang and nonstandard terms—twice a year. And, for winter 2024, the platform added 327 new words, along with 173 new definitions and 1,228 revised definitions of words, to its online glossary. The update includes various themes, from pop culture, science and fashion to sports, health and entertainment. Can you guess what’s on the list? Read on to find out!
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How are new words chosen to be added to Dictionary.com?
According to Dictionary.com, there are four areas of criteria that are taken into consideration when adding a new word to the dictionary. Simply put, it boils down to these requirements:
- It’s a word that’s used by a lot of people.
- It’s used by those people in largely the same way.
- The word is likely to stick around.
- It’s useful for a general audience.
What are some of the new words added to Dictionary.com this year?
So what made the cut for winter 2024? Here’s a list of some of our favorites, along with Dictionary.com’s definitions:
- Barbiecore: An aesthetic or style featuring playful pink outfits, accessories, decor, etc., celebrating and modeled on the wardrobe of the Barbie doll.
- Sustainable fashion: A genre of clothing and other fashion products intended to reduce negative impacts on the environment through the use of ecologically responsible materials and manufacturing, the promotion of longer-lasting style trends, and the popularization of product reuse.
- Circular fashion: A type of sustainable fashion that promotes minimal manufacturing through the ongoing reuse of garments and accessories or their components.
- Eco-chic: Of or relating to a style, design or product that is attractive and fashionable as well as eco-friendly and sustainable.
- Slow fashion: A movement among clothing producers and consumers that emphasizes eco-friendly, well-made clothing, maintenance and repair of garments to extend their life span, and a general reduction of one’s consumption of new clothing items. (This is the opposite of fast fashion.)
- Shacket: A garment in the style of a button-down shirt, made of a thicker fabric and usually worn over other shirts.
- Cozy: Relating to a genre of mystery stories with little suspense, explicit violence or sexual content, often also having amateur sleuths and idyllic, intimate settings. (This new dictionary word can also be used as a noun when referring to the story itself.)
- Girl dinner: An often attractively presented collection of snacks that involve little preparation, such as small quantities of cold cuts, cheese, fruit, cherry tomatoes, etc., deemed sufficient to constitute a meal for one.
- Pretty privilege: An unearned and mostly unacknowledged societal advantage that a person has by fitting into the beauty standards of their culture.
- Worlding: The act or process of bringing a people, culture, nation, etc., into a global sphere of influence, especially the sphere thought of as dominated by Western countries.
- Ensh*tification: The gradual degradation of an online platform or service’s functionality, as part of a cycle in which the platform or service first offers benefits to users to attract them, then pursues more and more profits at the expense of users.
- Food insecure: Having or characterized by limited or uncertain access to adequate food.
- Climate breakdown: The collective effects of harmful and potentially irreversible trends in climate, specifically those resulting from unchecked global warming.
- Fire tornado: A flaming tornado generated by intense wildfire, rarer, much larger and more destructive than a fire whirl.
- Energy poverty: A lack of adequate access to safe, affordable sources of electricity or fuel for warmth, light, cooking, etc.
- Extreme heat event: A heat event classified as being excessive enough to pose a serious threat to public health.
- Global boiling: A nonscientific term used to emphasize the trend toward and severity of extreme heat events, especially in regard to public health.
- Greedflation: A rise in prices, rents or the like, that is not due to market pressure or any other factor organic to the economy, but is caused by corporate executives or boards of directors, property owners, etc., solely to increase profits that are already healthy or excessive.
- Kennel cough: A highly contagious but usually mild respiratory infection in dogs, characterized by a dry hacking or gagging cough and caused by a number of bacteria and viruses.
- Skiplagging: The practice of purchasing an air ticket for a flight with a layover at one’s true destination, getting off at the layover point and skipping the last leg of the flight: a workaround to avoid paying a higher fare for a direct flight to one’s destination.
- Sound bath: An instance of sustained listening to the pleasant sounds emanating from a collection of singing bowls, bells, chimes, etc., used to aid in relaxation or meditation and believed to help restore physical and mental wellness.
- Prebiotic: A substance containing dietary fiber that stimulates the growth or activity of beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.
- Turf toe: A sprain at the joint between the metatarsus and the phalanx of the big toe, caused when the ligament connecting them under the toe is overextended: typically a sports-related injury, originally associated especially with artificial grass surfaces.
Additional reporting by Jessica Kaplan.
Sources:
- Dictionary.com: “How New Words Get Added to Dictionary.com—And How the Dictionary Works”
- Dictionary.com: “There’s a Word for That: Our Dictionary Additions for Winter 2024”
