The English language is being shaped by social media influences, with over 6,000 new words added to the Cambridge Dictionary this year. Notable additions include slang like "skibidi," which can imply "cool" or "bad," and reflect internet culture. Terms such as "tradwife" and "delulu" showcase societal shifts, while words like "mouse jiggler" and "forever chemical" highlight contemporary issues like remote working and environmental concerns. Cambridge Dictionary uses a vast corpus to gauge the usage and longevity of new terms before inclusion.
"Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary," said Colin McIntosh, lexical program manager at Cambridge Dictionary, the world's largest online dictionary.
"Skibidi" is a gibberish term coined by the creator of an animated YouTube series and can mean "cool" or "bad" or be used with no real meaning as a joke.
Other planned additions including "tradwife," a contraction of "traditional wife" referring to a married mother who cooks, cleans and posts on social media, and "delulu," a shortening of the word delusional that means "believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to."
Concerns over climate change are behind the addition of "forever chemical," a harmful chemical that remains in the environment for a long time.
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