Cambridge Dictionary added roughly 6,000 new terms to its 2025 edition, capturing the influence of social media, digital culture and climate discourse on modern English.
The updated entries include everything from viral slang to workplace jargon, reflecting how online behavior and pop culture are reshaping everyday language.
Among the standout additions are “delulu,” an abbreviation of “delusional” that describes someone who knowingly believes in fantasies, and “tradwife,” a term used to describe women who embrace conventional domestic roles, often promoted by influencers online.
Another entry, “skibidi,” comes from a bizarre yet wildly popular YouTube animation series and has taken on a flexible meaning, ranging from “cool” to “weird,” depending on the context.
“Broligarchy,” a mashup of “bro” and “oligarchy,” is used to describe a tight-knit group of wealthy and influential men in tech, such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who hold sway over politics and innovation.
The dictionary also acknowledged the realities of remote work with the inclusion of “mouse jiggler,” a device or software that keeps a computer active to avoid appearing idle.
Other workplace-related terms like “work wife” and “work spouse” also made the cut, alongside fashion-forward slang like “lewk,” a stylized version of “look” popularized by shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Colin McIntosh, lexical program manager at Cambridge Dictionary, said the selection process is rooted in long-term relevance.
“We only add words where we think they’ll have staying power,” he said.
Gaming culture also left its mark with terms like “speedrun,” originally used to describe completing a video game as fast as possible, and “side quest,” now used more broadly to describe any secondary task or distraction in daily life.
The dictionary continues to track how existing words evolve. For instance, “snackable” has shifted from describing food to referring to short-form digital content, while “red flag” and “green flag” are now widely used to describe warning signs or positive traits in relationships.
Environmental and digital concerns were also reflected in new entries like “technofossil,” which refers to human-made objects that persist in the environment, and “digital decay,” the gradual loss of access to online data and content.
Cambridge Dictionary’s 2025 update is based on extensive analysis of language trends across media, social platforms and real-world conversations.
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