Dictionary.com, one of the leading sources for meanings and definitions of words on the internet, has added more than 300 new terms to its list. The website has also introduced new and updated definitions for existing words. New terms in the list include "hellscape", "trauma dumping", "nearlywed", "self-coup" etc.
The website said, "Our lexicographers observe it all, documenting language change wherever it's happening and defining the terms that help us to understand our times. The most recent additions to Dictionary.com come from just about everywhere, spanning the multiverse-like complexity of modern life."
The online dictionary has also been expanded to include words that describe contemporary identity politics and workplace cultures. Examples include "digital nomad" and "pinkwashing". According to the lexicon, a person who works remotely while traveling for leisure, especially when having no fixed, permanent address is known as a digital nomad. While the latter refers to an instance or practice of acknowledging and promoting the civil liberties of the LGBTQ+ community.
Dictionary.com said that "nearlywed" is a person who lives with "another in a life partnership, sometimes engaged with no planned wedding date, sometimes with no intention of ever marrying". They added that the term is modeled on newlywed.
Similarly, a place or time that is hopeless, unbearable, or irredeemable is called "hellscape". Whereas, "trauma dumping" is defined as an unsolicited, one-sided sharing of traumatic or intensely negative experiences or emotions in an inappropriate setting or with people who are unprepared for the interaction.
John Kelly, Senior Director of Editorial at Dictionary.com, said in a statement to USA Today, "The sheer range and volume of vocabulary captured in our latest update to Dictionary.com reflects a shared feeling that change today is happening faster and more than ever before."
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"Our team of lexicographers is documenting and contextualizing that unstoppable swirl of the English language - not only to help us better understand our changing times, but how the times we live in change, in turn, our language," he continued.
