Merriam-Webster Adds 1,400 New Words

Merriam-Webster’s new food-related entries include “cake pop,” “shishito,” “bao,” “chili crisp” and “superfood,” with “superfood” defined as a nutrient-rich food such as salmon, broccoli or blueberries.

Merriam-Webster also added “crashout,” meaning either a mental or emotional breakdown or an emotional outburst or tantrum, and “uncanny valley,” describing discomfort in response to a human simulation.

Merriam-Webster says its editors track roughly 17 million citations from articles, books and speeches, then assess words against three standards—frequent, widespread and meaningful usage. The publisher described a dictionary as “a user’s manual for communication,” not an “idea museum.”

Dictionary.com’s update was heavily science-focused: most additions concerned biology, physics, medicine, earth science, chemistry, computing, mathematics and psychology, alongside the cultural and slang terms highlighted in the summary.