Merriam-Webster has officially added the words “rizz” and “simp” to its dictionary.
“We’re very excited by this new batch of words,” says Peter Sokolowski, Editor at Large at Merriam-Webster. “We hope there is as much insight and satisfaction in reading them as we got from defining them.”
Merriam-Webster has a headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts and has been a provider of language definitions for more than 180 years.
Apart from its glorious slang additions, Merriam-Webster has also added words and phrases from the digital worlds to its lineup. These encompass the AI space (“generative AI,” “large language model”) and the world of gaming (“cutscene,” “nerf,” “rage quit) among others. There are also plenty of terms from topics as wide-ranging as “culture and society” (“thirst trap,” “‘grammable,” “edgelord”) to business (“meme stock,” “girlboss”).
“Signs of a healthy language include words being created, words being borrowed from other languages, and new meanings being given to existing words,” Merriam-Webster said in a blog post announcing the additions. “Based on our most recent research, we are pleased to inform you that English is very (very!) healthy.”
Head on over to the Merriam-Webster blog to see all 690 of the additions for yourself.
Popular acronyms including tfw, that feeling when; ngl, not gonna lie; and ttyl, talk to you later, were also added.
From the world of gaming we get nerf, to reduce something’s effectiveness; non-player character, a character in a video game that cannot be controlled; and rage quit, to quit something in anger.
