New Words 2023
The following words were added to the Oxford and/or Merriam-Webster dictionaries over the course of 2023.
Beast mode (n.): an extremely aggressive or energetic style or manner that someone (such as an athlete) adopts temporarily (as to overpower an opponent in a fight or competition).
Beige flag (n.): a character trait that indicates that a partner or potential partner is boring or lacks originality; (also) a trait or habit, esp. of a partner or potential partner, viewed as extremely characteristic, but not distinctly good or bad
Bussin’ (adj.): Extremely good, excellent; delicious, tasty
Cape (v.): To act as a defender or supporter.
Dap (n.): A casual gesture of greeting, acknowledgement, or affirmation, typically involving slapping palms, bumping fists, or snapping fingers.
Doomscroll (v.): To spend excessive time online scrolling through news or other content that makes one feel sad, anxious, angry, etc.
Edgelord (n.): Someone who makes wildly dark and exaggerated statements (as on an internet forum) with the intent of shocking others.
Final girl (n.): A stock female character who survives to defeat or evade the attacker after the other characters have been killed, and who is typically portrayed as intelligent, serious, cautious, and chaste.
Forever chemical (n.): A toxic substance and especially a synthetic chemical (as of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances group) that persists and accumulates in the environment.
Generative AI (n.): Artificial intelligence capable of generating new content (such as images or text) in response to a submitted prompt (such as a query) by learning from a large reference database of examples.
Heat dome (n.): A persistent high-pressure weather system over a particular geographic area, which traps a mass of hot air below it.
Jag (n.): Scottish term for “a hypodermic injection, esp. a vaccination.
Jorts (n.): Shorts made of denim or jean: jean shorts.
Kayfabe (n.): The tacit agreement between professional wrestlers and their fans to pretend that overtly staged wrestling events, stories, characters, etc., are genuine; tacit agreement to behave as if something is real, sincere, or genuine when it is not; the playacting involved in maintaining kayfabe.
Keep cup (n.): A reusable cup.
Nerf (v.): to reduce the effectiveness of (something, such as a character, attribute, or weapon) in a video game; to make (something) less useful or effective; to lightly bump.
Nurdle (n.): A plastic pellet that is usually less than 0.2 inch (0.5 centimeter) in diameter or length, that is the raw material from which plastic products are manufactured, and that is a common pollutant of global waters and beaches
Parasocial (adj.): Designating a relationship characterized by the one-sided, unreciprocated sense of intimacy felt by a viewer, fan, or follower for a well-known or prominent figure, in which the follower or fan comes to feel (falsely) that they know the celebrity as a friend.
Porch pirate (n.): A person who steals parcels that have been delivered and left unattended outside the intended recipient’s home, business, etc.”
Rage quit (v.): To suddenly stop participating or engaging in (something) in a fit of anger and frustration; to quit (something) in anger.
Rizz (n.): Romantic appeal or charm (i.e. charisma)
Shithousery (n.): Something regarded as despicable, unacceptable, or bad.
Swiftie (n.): An enthusiastic fan of the singer Taylor Swift.
Tallywacker (n.): The penis; a stupid, annoying, or otherwise objectionable person (esp. a man).
Textspeak (n.): Language regarded as characteristic of text messaging and other forms of electronic communication, often consisting of abbreviations, acronyms, emoticons or emojis, etc.”
NGL (abbr.): Not gonna lie.
TFW (abbr.): That feeling when.
TTYL (abbr.): Talk to you later
Thirst trap (n.): A photograph (such as a selfie) or video shared for the purpose of attracting attention or desire; someone or something that attracts attention or strong desire.
UAP (n.): Unidentified aerial phenomenon (a mysterious flying object in the sky that is sometimes assumed to be a spaceship from another planet).
Zhuzh (n.): a small improvement, adjustment, or addition that completes the overall look, taste, etc. of something; verb : to improve in flavor or appearance by way of a small improvement, adjustment, or addition — often used with up
