Expand Your Vocabulary With These New Words From Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster has just added 640 more words to its vocabulary , which is always an exciting moment for grammarians around the world who can’t wait to dive into the essence of the vocabulary .
If your favorite new word – or the new definition of an old word – doesn’t pass the test, don’t be a snowflake . The guys at Merriam Webster work tirelessly to track words for usage and commonality because, as they say, “English never sleeps, and neither does the dictionary.”
Each word follows its own path at its own pace before its usage becomes common enough to be included in the dictionary. We watch words move from specialized contexts to broader usage, and we quote each word to draft our definitions. In other words, it means we have receipts (so to speak).
Some words seem a little obvious; if you’re a parent, you’ve used ” screen time “ to refer to the amount of time your child’s face has been glued to the tablet for many years. But others, such as salutogenesis (a way of monitoring health by promoting well-being rather than measuring disease), are a little more obscure.
There are words from the business sector like gig economy and vulture capitalism . There are some really smart scientific words (come on, use a qubit in a sentence). And of course, there are entertaining words (I’ve personally never heard something called a bottle episode , but I agree with Buzzy ).
With all these new words, I bet lugging around a dictionary these days could make you pretty … bloated .