Share and Follow
More than 5,000 terms were added to the dictionary, the company said on Thursday.
NEW YORK — Merriam-Webster on Thursday announced a major overhaul of its popular “Collegiate” dictionary. The company has added more than 5,000 terms. Here’s a few of them with definitions — and some usage examples of our own.
Beast mode
DEFINITION: An extremely aggressive or energetic style or manner that someone adopts temporarily to overpower an opponent in a fight or competition.
EXAMPLE: He needed to go beast mode to crush the hot dog eating contest.
Dad bod
DEFINITION: A physique regarded as typical of an average father, especially one that is slightly overweight and not extremely muscular.
EXAMPLE: Harry rocked a dad bod even before the birth of his first child.
Dumbphone
DEFINITION: A cellphone that does not include advanced software features, such as email or an internet browser typically found on smartphones.
EXAMPLE: Want to really get lost? Destroy your smartphone, buy a burner dumbphone and head for the hills.
Farm-to-table
DEFINITION: Involving or advocating the direct sale and distribution of food from its point of origin to customers.
EXAMPLE: Farm-to-table, shmarm-to-table. Jack wants a Big Mac, not a pricey restaurant meal.
Hard pass
DEFINITION: A firm refusal or rejection of something, such as an offer.
EXAMPLE: The egg salad’s been in the sun for six hours. That’s a hard pass for me, Suzy.
Love language
DEFINITION: A person’s characteristic means of showing love or care for another.
EXAMPLE: Charlie’s dating profile says his love language is making mac and cheese. Could go either way, dude.
Petrichor
DEFINITION: A distinctive, earthy, usually pleasant odor that is associated with rainfall, especially when following a warm, dry period.
EXAMPLE: Molly refused to let the weather dampen her mood, especially as the petrichor reminded her of cozy rainy days past.
Rizz
DEFINITION: Romantic appeal or charm.
EXAMPLE: “You come here often?” Joe’s rizz was way, WAY off.
Side-eye
DEFINITION: A sidelong glance or gaze, especially when expressing scorn, suspicion, disapproval or veiled curiosity.
EXAMPLE: Anna side-eyes every man in white socks and sandals. That’s all.
Teraflop
DEFINITION: A unit of measure for the calculating speed of a computer equal to one trillion floating-point operations per second.
EXAMPLE: Cough up enough teraflops to let me bed rot with my PlayStation.
Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
