From “alt-right” and “teachable moment” to “slay” and “dabbing,” Dictionary.com has added hundreds of new words that define 2017.
The online dictionary picks its additions each year based on what users are searching on the site. This year, those words ranged from politics and food to marijuana and slang.
“Our users turn to us to define the words they see, hear, and read — and in today’s highly politicized world, we play a necessary role in helping users dissect the meaning of words heard in this period of political discourse,” said Dictionary.com CEO Liz McMillan in a statement.
“Alt-right,” which saw a spike in interest during the 2016 election, is now defined on Dictionary.com as a political movement “composed of a segment of conservatives who support extreme right-wing ideologies, including white nationalism and anti-Semitism.” The website also defined “clicktivism” as the “use of the Internet to organize and promote political or social cause and movements.”
Dictionary.com also defined marijuana-related slang terms including “420” and “kush,” following referendums on the recreational legalization of the drug in several states last year.
In music, Beyoncé served as inspiration for the addition of “slay,” a verb that means “to strongly impress or overwhelm someone.” (Dictionary.com also still includes the word’s original definition: “to kill by violence.”)
And Dictionary.com now offers a detailed definition of “dabbing,” popularized recently by the rap group Migos: “the act of performing a dance move that involves posing with one’s nose in the crook of a bent elbow at chest level while extending the other arm to the side at or above shoulder level, often as a celebratory posture in sports or other competitions.”
