Today, Dictionary.com, the leading online and mobile English-language educational resource, announced that more than 300 new words and definitions were added in its latest update. These new entries demonstrate the vital role that Dictionary.com plays in documenting—and educating on—all aspects of language, from changes in culture and tech due to COVID to keeping track of ways people are reckoning with identity to slang and cultural touchstones. The update also includes the company's latest educational offerings that allow users to enjoy new learning experiences with words.
"The latest update to our dictionary continues to mirror the world around us," said John Kelly, Managing Editor, Dictionary.com. "Long COVID, minoritize, 5G, content warning, domestic terrorism—it's a complicated and challenging society we live in, and language changes to help us grapple with it."
"But sometimes language changes just for fun," continued Kelly. "Yes, yeet is now in the dictionary, which may prompt some of us to use one other of our new entries: oof! Perhaps these lighter slang and pop culture newcomers to our dictionary reflect another important aspect of our time—a cautious optimism and a brighter mood about the future ahead after a trying 2020."
Impact of Identity and Culture on Language
Growing awareness of inequality, inequity, and their deeper causes has spurred many organizations and corporations to invest in initiatives to counter them in the workplace. These efforts are commonly referred to by two increasingly familiar—and newly added—initialisms, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion). Changes in the branding of major products such as Aunt Jemima and Edy's Pies are now documented on Dictionary.com and reflect a shift away from the use of racist stereotypes in marketing.
Another notable update centers on an important distinction between the terms marginalize and minoritize, the latter of which is newly defined on Dictionary.com. Other new entries, such as historical laws known as the one-drop rule and the social theory of hypodescent, speak to how past practices continue to resonate and have complex ramifications for the present. Dictionary.com also broadened its definition of cultural appropriation to account for the mainstream adoption of cultural elements from any smaller group, including from minority groups as well as subcultures within dominant groups.
New Entries from Technology, COVID, and Pop Culture
The world of technology reliably brings new entries, including 5G, or fifth-generation, wireless, while various social media controversies brought the term deplatforming into the mainstream.
COVID continues to impact the lexicon, with additions including long haul, long hauler, and long COVID that describe the long-term effects of the virus. (And for those who were stuck at home during COVID-related lockdowns and turned to true crime to fill the time, the addition of the British police slang misper may be a familiar addition.)
This recent batch of entries also features some existing words that received new or upgraded definitions. The entry for silver fox, not to be confused with zaddy, now includes a handsome grey-haired senior alongside the original zoological definition, while taking a break for a snack has whole new connotations, thanks to newly added slang sense of the word. Pop culture has also provided two fantastic words to this latest update: oof and yeet, both of which can be used as expressive formations, one for dismay and the other for excitement.
Last but far from least, Dictionary.com has given y'all its own entry, marking not only its distinct prominence in the lexicon but also showing its spread from southern dialects of American English into the mainstream vernacular.
New Educational Offerings To Explore
Dictionary.com is committed to creating fun, engaging, and authoritative educational resources for parents, students, and educators to help combat challenges in education due to the pandemic as well as discover new ways to use and experiment with words. ...
(All Rights Reserved)