Every year, as our language evolves, new words and new definitions of old words are added to the dictionary. Here are my 2024 favorites.
Most of the “new words” we see added to the dictionary every year aren’t really new words. Many are existing words that people repurpose. Years back, the word sick, which used to mean ill took on a meaning of cool or hip. In those cases, dictionaries simply add new definitions under existing words.
But some of the words we see appearing for the first time in various dictionaries are either shortenings of existing words or new words that we haven’t used before.
So here’s a list of 10 of my favorite new additions in 2024.
1. Binned
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the adjective binned as “put or thrown into a dustbin or wastepaper basket.” But it also notes that the word can take on a figurative use to describe a person or thing being “rejected, discarded, or abandoned.”
2. Blursday
Dictionary.com added this new word complete with two definitions. The one I’d be more likely to refer to is a day that doesn’t particularly stand out because you feel several days have run together. The other definition refers to feeling the aftereffects of too much drinking the night before, a hangover.
3. Coffee Nap
For years, I’ve said that I think I have some degree of immunity to caffeine. I can sit in my recliner watching TV shortly before bed, sipping on a nice cup of coffee and be perfectly able to drift off to sleep. I even had to get up early for a meeting one state away and after the meeting, I was in the passenger seat on the way back sipping on a “double jolt” coffee and was still dozing.
This word serves as proof that drinking coffee doesn’t give everyone the shakes.
Dictionary.com added coffee nap as a noun. It defines it as “a short nap, usually 15–30 minutes, taken immediately after drinking a cup of coffee, the claimed benefit being that the energizing effect of caffeine may be bolstered by a sleeping body’s drop in adenosine levels.”
4. Confuddle
One of Judge Judy’s favorite words is kerfuffle, a noun that means an argument or dispute. It reminds me a little of confuddle, which is a verb. The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition reads, “to perplex, confuse, confound, or befuddle (a person); to muddle or mix up (speech, thoughts, etc.)”
5. Fatmouth
There is no end to the list of politicians who could be accused of this. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the verb fatmouth this way: “To talk foolishly or at length, esp. in an indiscreet, boastful, or opinionated way. Also: to make empty threats or promises.”
6. Flirtationship
This word also went into the Oxford English Dictionary. It refers to a social relationship based solely on flirting rather than any physical connection.
7. Mountweazel
I remember a story about the origins of the board game Trivial Pursuit. As the story goes, one question about Peter Falk’s character of Lt. Columbo, caused a legal nightmare for the game’s creators. They pulled facts for their trivia questions from a variety of sources. But one of those trivia books contained what Dictionary.com would call a mountweazel. The trivia book listed Columbo’s first name as Philip. The author of the book made that up just to see which other trivia books might copy the bogus fact. The board game was found to have that question and answer!
Dictionary.com defines the noun mountweazel as “a decoy entry in a reference work, such as a dictionary or encyclopedia, secretly planted among the genuine entries to catch other publishers in the act of copying content.”
8. Pessimize
I love the fact that pessimize was added to the dictionary in 2024. I’ve written a few times on the subject without knowing the word itself. Dictionary.com defines the verb this way: “To make less good, efficient, fast, functional, etc., especially in the context of computers or information technology.”
I’ve written more than once about computers being allowed to take over certain tasks in a business with less-than-stellar results. Of course, those poor outcomes aren’t the goal of letting computers take control of things. But when they do, it can sometimes pessimize things quite well!
9. Turnt (Up)
The British-sounding turnt was added to the dictionary this year. Oxford English Dictionary provides a pair of definitions for the adjective turnt. The first refers to being intoxicated. The second (usually paired with the word up) refers to eager or excited.
10. Wrongthink
The noun wrongthink made its way into the Oxford English Dictionary this year. The definition is “a belief or opinion that is perceived or condemned as socially, ideologically, or morally unacceptable, esp. because it does not conform to a dominant, prevailing political or cultural orthodoxy.”
Depending on your political point of view, roughly half of the country commits wrongthink on a regular basis. You must decide for yourself which half that is.
That’s my list. Did you have a favorite new word (or new definition of an existing word) the editors added to the dictionary this year?