September 28, 2025

5000 additions to new dictionary

 If the terms “side-eye,” “hard pass,” and “dad bod” have you scratching your head, Merriam-Webster is here to help: The company announced Thursday that these words are among the 5,000-plus additions to the 12th edition of its Collegiate Dictionary. Releasing Nov. 18, the fully revised book will be the collegiate dictionary’s first hard-copy update in 22 years.

And Gen Z slang won’t be the only new content — we’ll also see words like “petrichor,” which refers to the typically pleasant odor associated with rainfall after a warm, dry period, and “teraflop,” a unit of measure for calculating computer speed. Additionally, the book will boast 1,000 fresh phrases and idioms and over 20,000 new usage examples. To make room, Merriam-Webster eliminated two sections of the 11th edition that had biographical and geographical definitions, along with some obsolete words (like enwheel, which means to encircle).

“We wanted it to be more rewarding to browse, more fun to look through, and to really be practical for research, but also a beautiful book,” president Greg Barlow told the Associated Press, adding, “While the print dictionary is not at all important to the growth and profitability of this wonderful language company, it’s still our heart. There are people out there who just love books, and we love books.”

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