The Cambridge Dictionary has added more than 6,000 new words this year, including terms like "skibidi", "tradwife" and "delulu".
If the words look like nonsense to you, you're not necessarily alone. The phrases have been popularised on social media apps such as TikTok and have become permanent phrases used on rotation among the Gen-Z age bracket.
While I'm familiar with the terms "delulu" and "tradwife", the word "skibidi" passed me by. However, as a firm millennial, it's perhaps not entered my algorithm. I was of the generation to witness the birth of words such as "girlboss" and "selfie".
What do the new words mean?
Skibidi is defined in the dictionary as "a word that can have different meanings such as 'cool' or 'bad', or can be used with no real meaning as a joke".
"Tradwife" is a shortening of "traditional wife" and has been coined thanks to the perhaps controversial rise of social media influencers who post content about cooking, cleaning and tending to a home. "Delulu", meanwhile, is a shortening of the word "delusional."
Other terms have been added related to work and the tech world, such as "broligarchy" – merging the words "bro" and "oligarchy", meaning "a small group of men, especially men owning or involved in a technology business, who are extremely rich and powerful, and who have or want political influence".
So what do the experts make of all these changes? Is it a good thing that social media is influencing our expanding language?
We spoke to Esteban Touma, a linguist and cultural expert at global language learning platform Babbel, to get his take.
I'm a linguist and this is my take on the words 'skibidi', 'delulu' and more
Esteban told HELLO!: "We're hardening new words into vocabulary faster than ever. New slang and social adaptation to using new words is happening at a rate we've not previously seen, thanks mostly to social media and the warp speed with which trends travel.
"These new entries are a perfect example of how fast cultural memes become permanent lexicon. While I don't think of these additions as an 'endorsement' of what these words represent, it's an interesting mapping of a linguistic terrain we're actually walking."
Esteban also added that as long as we're continuing to borrow from internet subcultures, we're going to continue to have more "playful" language enter our permanent lexicon.
"We're compressing big ideas into short handles, resulting in a linguistic phenomenon called 'modular meaning' – tiny words that carry huge context that is often visual or community-specific. Also expect shorter lifespans for slang but longer archival memory.
"Some words will become much more of their time, which is something we've seen before – think: 'doggo', 'girlboss', etc. These millennial words have become somewhat of a digital fossil but encapsulate the aura of the time they were popularised."
Is the TikTok influence a good thing?
While Esteban notes that TikTok is the "powerful" channel through which our language is growing and expanding, it's neither a good nor bad thing, but more something that will have to be accepted for our digital future.
"TikTok is a linguistic amplifier, not only spreading language but dictating how it performs," Esteban notes.
"That accelerates adoption and makes meaning where there previously wasn't one. While we can't definitively say that this is a good thing, it is definitely a powerful thing.
"It democratizes language and tastemaking in a way that we've not seen – anyone can mint a word and watch it go global. The upside is creativity and inclusion; the risk is shallowness and speed outpacing substance."
Esteban added finally: "In the past, a slang term might take years to go national; now it's hours. And we can watch the lifecycle unfold in public. Social media didn't invent language change; it just put it on fast-forward and gave it a soundtrack."