Dictionary.com

13 Stories

A Nepo Baby Took a Coffee Nap After Eating a Shower Orange

No idea what that means? You need to brush up on this year's new entries to Dictionary.com

(Newser) - You've surely heard of "sextortion," but "paraprosdokian" may have you scratching your head. Luckily, both words now have full-fledged entries at Dictionary.com , which is out with its annual list of additions and updates. There are nearly 570 completely new entries, as well as almost 350...

'Pawternity Leave' Among Dictionary.com's New Words

Dictionary.com added nearly twice as many new words as Merriam-Webster in 2022

(Newser) - It’s new-word season in the dictionary world. First, as every dictionary editor likes to point out, dictionaries do not invent words, they merely document them. As staffers at Dictionary.com put it, "a word doesn’t become a 'real word' when we add it to the dictionary...

Dictionary.com's Word of the Year Isn't About COVID

Site goes with 'allyship'

(Newser) - Allyship, an old noun made new again, is Dictionary.com's word of the year. The lookup site with 70 million monthly users took the unusual step of anointing a word it added just last month, though “allyship” first surfaced in the mid-1800s, said Associate Director of Content &...

Dictionary.com Catches Up on Hot Topics, and Also 'Yeet'

A changing world requires new terms and definitions, editor says

(Newser) - More than 300 words and updated definitions have been added to Dictionary.com, in an effort to stay current with surging issues and slang that may or may not stay around long. New terms related to COVID-19, terrorism, racial justice, and technology now are listed; earlier dictionaries had no need...

Dictionary.com's New Words Offer Nod to The Simpsons

Totally cromulent

(Newser) - Dictionary.com appears to have further ruined a 25-year-old joke from The Simpsons with its new batch of words for 2021. A 1996 episode poked fun at fictional Springfield's use of the nonexistent words "cromulent" and "embiggen"—two of 450 new words added to the online...

Cartoon 'Spork' Helped Drive Dictionary's Word of the Year

Forky from 'Toy Story 4' understands 'existential' better than many of us, per Dictionary.com

(Newser) - Climate change, gun violence, the very nature of democracy, and an angsty little movie star called Forky helped propel "existential" to Dictionary.com's word of the year. The choice reflects months of high-stakes threats and crises, real and pondered, across the news and the world, and throughout 2019....

Another Year, Another Depressing Word to Define It

Hello, misinformation

(Newser) - "Misinformation," as opposed to "disinformation," was chosen Monday as Dictionary.com's word of the year on the tattered coattails of "toxic," picked earlier this month for the same honor by Oxford Dictionaries. Jane Solomon, a linguist-in-residence at Dictionary.com, says that her site'...

Ivanka, Jeff Flake Uttered Dictionary.com's Word of Year

So did Scarlett Johansson

(Newser) - Russian election influence, the ever-widening sexual harassment scandal, mass shootings, and the opioid epidemic helped elevate the word "complicit" as Dictionary.com's word of the year for 2017. Look-ups of the word increased nearly 300% over last year as "complicit" hit just about every hot button, from...

This Word of the Year Is 'a Sentiment to Be Fought'

Dictionary.com chooses 'xenophobia'

(Newser) - Last year, Dictionary.com chose "identity" as its word of the year because "many of the year's biggest stories focused on the way in which individuals or members of a group are perceived, understood, accepted, or shut out." Along those same lines, the website has this...

Caitlyn Jenner Inspires 'Word of the Year'

Dictionary.com chooses 'Identity'

(Newser) - Unlike Oxford Dictionaries , Dictionary.com is sticking with an actual word for its 2015 word of the year: "identity." The site unveiled its choice as "the clear front-runner" Tuesday, noting "many of the year's biggest stories focused on the way in which individuals or members...

Apple Sued for Letting Our Apps Track Us

iPhone, iPad contain identifiers that can't be blocked: suit

(Newser) - Apple allows iPhone and iPad apps to send users' personal info to advertising networks without consent, according to a lawsuit filed last week. The suit says the gadgets contain identifying devices that let these networks track users' app downloads and usage, Bloomberg reports. Some apps also sell information like users'...

Has It Gone, Or Just Gone Online?
 Has It Gone, Or
 Just Gone Online?  
OPINION
May 11, 2008 5:06 PM CDT

Has It Gone, Or Just Gone Online?

NYT columnist gets nervous as Oxford Dictionary hits the web

(Newser) - The Oxford English Dictionary—the 3-volume one with the magnifying glass—has ditched its hard copy and gone digital for good, which makes one "bookish middle-class" writer nervous. "Other totemic college books could go out of style, maybe," Virginia Heffernan writes in the New York Times. But...

Answer(s.com): $100 million
Answer(s.com): $100 million
Jul 17, 2007 8:06 AM CDT

Answer(s.com): $100 million

(Newser) - Question:  What is the amount tiny Answers.com ($7 million in 2006 revenues), the operator of a reference aggregation site, has agreed to pay for equally tiny Lexico, owner of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com.  In order to raise the $100 million purchase price Answers has...

13 Stories
Most Read on Newser