Each year, Dictionary.com bestows society with a special gift: a batch of contemporary new words for the English language.
In 2022, the popular phrasebook added words such as “forest bathing,” which is the practice of being in nature, and “chair yoga,” a form of yoga that modifies postures and breathing exercises with the support of a chair.
In 2023, we’re expanding our vocabulary once again.
This time, the online reference site has added 313 new words to help us articulate and support changes in important areas of society and culture.
Many of these freshly added words reflect how the internet has affected our language.
Some of Dictionary.com’s new additions for 2023 include:
- Cakeage: The fees a restaurant charges for serving a cake brought in by a patron from outside the business. A close relative to corkage, the term used to define the cost charged to bring a bottle of wine into a restaurant or establishment.
- Cyberflashing: This is when someone sends unwanted, unsolicited, sexually explicit images or videos.
- Digital nomad: Someone with no permanent address, who works remotely while traveling.
- Fan service: Typically risqué or sexual in nature, this is material added to a work of fiction in order to appeal to fans.
- Hellscape: This word isn’t exactly new, but is relatable and now being popularized in our current vocabulary. Hellscape was initially used in the late 1890s, and means a place or time that’s hopeless or unbearable.
- Microdosing: Taking small doses of LSD, cannabis, or mushrooms to improve mood or enhance cognitive functioning without obtaining the hallucinogenic effects normally provided by a psychoactive drug.
- Nearlywed: Modeled after the popular term newlywed, a nearlywed lives with someone in a life partnership, with no plans to get married.
- Petfluencer: A person who has a large social media following by posting photos of their pet or a pet who has achieved Internet fame.
- Rage farming: Intentionally provoking political opponents, usually by posting something on social media to get an angry response.
- Trauma dumping: Unsolicited, one-sided sharing about traumatic or intensely negative experiences or emotions in an inappropriate setting or with those unprepared for it.
- Deadass: A term used to describe someone’s very strong or serious feelings on a sincere topic.
See the complete list of new words and phrases for 2023 here.