Meaningful updates

How new words are reshaping our understanding of the world around us

What’s common between AI, Bazball, deinfluencing, nepo baby, ultra-processed, canon event, debanking, greedflation, semaglutide, and ULEZ? These all were on a 2023 list of new terms that the dictionary publisher Collins said reflected “our ever-evolving language and the concerns of those who use it”; the most notable was AI aka “artificial intelligence” and its (the abbreviation’s) use quadrupled over the past year.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) estimates that there are around 170,000 words in current use, plus an additional 47,000 obsolete words. But that’s not enough. In 2022 alone, over 650 new words — from slang to pop-psychology terms