Merriam-Webster Adds 1,400 Words, OED Expands World English

This week’s scheduled dictionary updates are a reminder that English is built from many specialized rooms. Merriam-Webster has published a batch of 1,400 new words and definitions, while the Oxford English Dictionary continues to expand its world English coverage with entries from Hong Kong, West Africa, Malta, Japan and South Korea. The entries below show where lexicographers are paying attention, and where readers can look when a term comes from a game log, a bingo aisle or a security alert.

New entries from Springfield

Merriam-Webster.com added 1,400 new words and definitions to its dictionary, reflecting widespread use of evolving language. Among the social media entries are looksmaxxing, defined as the practice of taking one or more sometimes extreme or dangerous measures intended to increase one’s physical attractiveness; parasocial, involving a one-sided emotional connection with someone one does not know personally; and rickroll, to trick someone into hearing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. Technical additions include compute as a noun meaning computational resources such as memory and processing power, plus AGI (artificial general intelligence), vibe coding and uncanny valley. Food terms range from cake pop and shishito to bao, chili crisp and superfood, the last defined as a food such as salmon, broccoli or blueberries that is rich in nutrients. The update also formalizes cuffing season, yacht rock, crashout, Sunday scaries, the Mandela Effect and copium. Merriam-Webster, the oldest dictionary company in the United States, is headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts.

World English and specialist fields

The March 2026 Oxford English Dictionary update takes in Hong Kong terms such as bing sutt, yin yeung (a mixture of tea, brewed coffee, sugar and milk, first attested 1997), dan tat and pineapple bun. Malaysian and Singaporean English adds agak-agak, a reduplicated word for creative guesswork, and the phrase do not play play; South Africa contributes bosberaads and izicholos, while Ireland offers ah sure look. The December 2025 update adds West African words including adowa, kpanlogo, hiplife, ampesi and light soup, alongside entries from Malta, Japan and South Korea. These batches sit next to longer-standing specialist senses: an OED entry such as end lists American football use from the 1890s and computing use from the 1980s. Dictionaries do not only add brand new words; they also document how a single word moves into a new niche.

Reading a player line through language

When a player line appears in an NFL game log, the shorthand depends on a stable vocabulary. Merriam-Webster’s football words and terminology page collects the sport’s core terms. If you want to see how those terms translate into one current player’s season, you can compare the verified totals on Aaron Jones stats — that profile records 297 rushing yards, 72 carries and one touchdown through the first four games of the 2026 season, with injury and practice notes checked against the official report.

Dauber types and the bingo aisle

Not every everyday term makes it into a general dictionary in the same quarter. Bingo dauber, for instance, belongs to a hobby vocabulary that is easier to follow through product and price guides than through a dictionary update. The independent reference at Bingo Daubers price guides covers classic ink bottles, glitter and scented options, jumbo and mini sizes, refill ink and DIY builds, with shelf prices checked at chains like Dollar Tree, Walmart, Dollar General, Hobby Lobby and Michaels as of August 2026.

Security language in daily alerts

The Merriam-Webster update added several tech-facing entries, including AGI, vibe coding and uncanny valley, while compute now works as a noun for processing power and memory. The context for those terms includes Merriam-Webster’s 2025 word of the year, slop, now defined as digital content of low quality produced primarily by artificial intelligence. Editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski has said, “AI does not create knowledge, so AI cannot create a new definition of a new word because there’s no context for it.” For a plain-language walk through current cybersecurity guidance, Security Briefing’s online safety guides collect news and practical tools for everyday users.

A practical conclusion

Dictionary updates are most useful when you treat them as snapshots of living language, not as final rulings. The new Merriam-Webster entries show how quickly social media, food and technology reshape American English, while the OED’s world English batches remind us that the language is global. If you need a domain-specific answer, go to the specialized source: a player profile for a game log, a product guide for bingo daubers, or a security site for threat advice. The dictionary records the word; the context tells you how it is being used.