With 1,400 new entries announced this week, Merriam-Webster’s collection of words in the English language continues to grow. Among the new entries are social media-derived words like “looksmaxxing” and “Rickroll.”
Looksmaxxing refers to a social media trend focused on physical appearance made popular by controversial internet personality Clavicular, who took it to extreme “bone smashing” lengths. Rickroll refers to the longstanding internet tradition of misdirecting hyperlinks to the music video for Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” as a lighthearted prank.
Other new additions to Merriam-Webster from the world of social media include parasocial, describing the phenomenon of people developing one-sided relationships with well-known people; meme coin, describing cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin, and promposals for elaborate, engagement style proposals to attend Prom. There’s also a new definition for “letterboxing” that refers to video formats on various screen sizes – not the Letterboxd social media site. An older definition referred to a game that began in the 1840s.
“The new entries reflect words and meanings that have demonstrated widespread use over time, offering a window into the world today,” said Merriam-Webster in its Tuesday announcement about the additions.
We’ve come a long way from the company’s 1831 start as a bookselling and printing operation by brothers George and Charles Merriam. In 1843, they bought the rights to Noah Webster’s “An American Dictionary of the English Language” and they’ve been publishing dictionaries ever since.
Instead of talking about “puppy love” we’re more likely to talk about cuffing season – another new addition referring to finding a partner to spend the cold months with – these days. We’ve also put a name to the “Sunday scaries” and call our episodes of emotional distress “crashouts.” Here in 2026, whack-a-mole, yacht rock and California sober are well known enough to merit Merriam-Webster inclusion.
Indeed, social media wasn’t the only source of new dictionary entries this year. Technology also provided compute, used as a noun, as well as vibe coding (using an artificial intelligence system to generate computer code) artificial general intelligence (AGI) and uncanny valley (an unsettling, surreal feeling when artificial things appear almost, but not quite, human).
Then, there are new words from the kitchen. These include superfoods, describing healthy food such as salmon, broccoli and blueberries; cake pop, shishito, bao and chili crisp. Eating all of those in one sitting might necessitate the need for another new entry – shapewear. There’s also neckbeard, glow-up, trash panda, the Mandela Effect and, if that’s all too much for you, copium (denial imagined as a type of narcotic).
