Using online newspapers, magazines, books, and movie and television scripts, lexicographers find words when they hit “critical mass” of usage then adds them to the newest edition -- first online then eventually the print update of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
"So many people use our website as their principal dictionary and we want to be current." Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large, told the AP. "We want to be as useful as possible."
And it’s not just new words that are added. They also add new definitions.
One example is unplug. It used to mean the physical detachment of a plug from an outlet. Now the editors have included avoiding social media.
Some may think that a dictionary may have become obsolete, but Sokolowski said that’s not the case because we’re all inundated with information and new words being added to our language.
"We need the dictionary more than ever now that we have information flying at us from all directions," Sokolowski told the AP.
Click here to see the full list of words recently added.
Credit: Joanne K. Watson/Merriam-Webster via Getty Images
Credit: Joanne K. Watson/Merriam-Webster via Getty Images
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