Merriam-Webster adds 1,400 words, including rickroll

Merriam-Webster has added 1,400 new words and definitions to its dictionary website, including “rickroll” and other terms born from the internet and social media. The additions reflect how online culture has reshaped everyday speech.

Among the new entries are several words rooted in social media. They include “looksmaxxing,” defined as the practice of taking one or more sometimes extreme or dangerous measures intended to increase one’s physical attractiveness; “parasocial,” relating to or involving a one-sided emotional connection with someone (especially a celebrity or fictional character) whom one does not know personally; and “rickroll,” defined as to trick (someone) into hearing the song “Never Gonna Give You Up” by English singer Rick Astley.

Technology-related additions include “compute” as a noun, defined as the computational resources (such as memory and processing power) required for a computer or computer program to function.

Additional technology entries include AGI (artificial general intelligence), vibe coding (using AI to create computer code) and uncanny valley (an uneasy feeling you get in response to human simulation).

Merriam-Webster also expanded its food vocabulary. New entries include cake pop, shishito, bao and chili crisp. The term “superfood,” defined as a food (such as salmon, broccoli, or blueberries) that is rich in nutrients, also made its debut.

Other additions include:

• Cuffing season: a time of the year when people who are not married or in a relationship begin looking for a short-term romantic partner to spend the colder months of the year with
• Yacht rock: a style of soft rock music originating in the 1970s and 1980s
• Crashout: a mental or emotional breakdown; an emotional outburst or tantrum
• Sunday scaries: feelings of anxiety or sadness that arise on Sunday from the knowledge that the weekend is almost over
• Copium: avoidance, denial, or minimization (as of a bad situation, problem, outcome, etc.) imagined as a narcotic
• Mandela Effect: the experience of many people having the same false memory (coined by researcher Fiona Broome, who remembered the prison death of former South African President Nelson Mandela, though that didn’t happen.)

For a full list of the new entries, visit merriam-webster.com. Merriam-Webster is the oldest dictionary company in the United States and is headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts.