Why Aren’t New Words or Definitions Added Immediately?

Language is an exciting field, and our lexicographers are constantly hard at work conducting rigorous research, revising old entries, and adding new words to Dictionary.com. Each addition or update takes a tremendous amount of work and careful scholarship, which also takes time!

To see some of the vital work our fantastic lexicography team does, check out this overview of a recent lexicography release, which provide an over-view of their important work.

To learn more, please read this editorial article: How New Words Get Added To Dictionary.com—And How The Dictionary Works

Apart from our core Dictionary, we do also have a modern language section where our editorial team documents the meanings of slang, emoji, acronyms, memes, gender and sexuality, and other new or trending words in pop-culture. For more from our Editorial team, including fantastic articles on words and the English language, feel free to browse around: https://www.dictionary.com/e/ 

• Note that entries found in our editorial section (slang, emoji, etc. sections) are not meant to be a formal definition, like most terms we define on Dictionary.com. Rather, they are informal word summaries that hopefully touch upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage to help our users understand how the word is being used in the world.