Language is a living entity, constantly evolving to reflect the world around us. Each year, new words and phrases enter our lexicon, driven by cultural trends, social media, and technological innovation. The addition of new words in Cambridge Dictionary is an annual event that provides a unique snapshot of how we communicate. The Cambridge Dictionary has long served as a trusted record of the English language, and 6,212 words added in 2025 highlight a fascinating intersection of internet culture, technology, and social commentary. From popular slang to terms that describe new phenomena, these additions show how a dictionary serves as both a tool for communication and a historical archive of our times.
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List of New Words added in the Cambridge Dictionary in 2025
Cambridge Dictionary has added 6,212 words in 2025. The following table presents a selection of the new words in Cambridge Dictionary for 2025, along with their official definitions.
| Word | Part of Speech | Definition | Example Usage |
| skibidi | Noun | A viral internet meme featuring a head-in-a-toilet character with different meanings like cool or bad, or can be used with no real meaning as a joke | “What the skibidi are you doing?” |
| delulu | Adjective | “A play on the word delusional, means ‘believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to’.” | "She's so delulu thinking he'll ever text her back." |
| lewk | Noun | A play on the word look, meaning a particular style, fashion, or outfit, especially one that is unusual and impressive. | “Her work lewk is formally casual but it suits her.” |
| tradwife | Noun | Short for traditional wife – ‘a married woman, especially one who posts on social media, who stays at home doing cooking, cleaning, etc. | “Gen Z is watching a lot of tradwife content.” |
| broligarchy | Noun | A blend of bro and oligarchy, means ‘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’. | “She wrote a piece about how to survive the broligarchy.” |
| inspo | Noun | Short for inspiration, that gives you ideas for doing something or that makes you want to do something. | "I got so much inspo for my new project from that blog." |
| digital decay | Noun | The gradual process by which information online disappears or becomes inaccessible. | "We have to back up our files to prevent digital decay." |
| gen alpha | Noun | A way of referring to the group of people who were born in the 2010s and early 2020s. | “More than 2.5 million Gen Alphas are born globally each week.” |
| fast tech | Noun | Electronic products that are made and sold cheaply, and often replaced, leading to e-waste. | “Demand for so-called “fast tech” – cheap electronic items often quickly binned or abandoned in drawers – is growing.” |
| snackable | Adjective | Used to describe content that you can read or play in small amounts or for a short time, reflects our ever-shrinking attention spans. | “Make your videos "snackable". Keep each video less than four minutes long.” |
| technofossil | Noun | An object that could remain on the Earth for a very long period after it has been thrown away and is likely to be found and studied by people in the future | “Plastic will definitely be a signature ‘technofossil’, because it is incredibly durable.” |
| mouse jiggler | Noun | A device or piece of software used to make it seem as though a computer mouse is moving so that it seems as though you are working when you are not | “With monitoring software, employers can easily detect mouse jigglers.” |
| work wife | Noun | A woman with whom someone has a close, but not romantic, relationship at work, in which the two people help and trust each other in the same way that a married couple does | “Your work wife is someone you're closer friends with than any of your other colleagues.” |
| work spouse | Noun | A person with whom someone has a close, but not romantic, relationship at work, in which the two people help and trust each other in the same way that a married couple does | “A work spouse is understood to be a colleague with whom you have a strong and trusting bond.” |
(Source- Cambridge Dictionary News and Insight)
Why are these New Words added in the Dictionary?
The Cambridge Dictionary adds a new word to its pages only when it has demonstrated widespread use and a stable, recognizable meaning. The additions in 2025 reflect major cultural shifts. Terms like skibidi and delulu are direct products of social media and online youth culture, showing how the digital world is a powerful engine for linguistic innovation. The word skibidi is a prime example, originating from the viral YouTube series "Skibidi Toilet." Similarly, delulu meaning is a slang term that gained mainstream traction online. Other words, such as fast tech and technofossil, illustrate how our vocabulary is adapting to describe new concepts in technology and science, highlighting the dictionary's role in documenting societal change.
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Conclusion
The 2025 list of new words in Cambridge Dictionary is more than just a collection of slang; it's a window into the evolving landscape of our culture and technology. The inclusion of terms like skibidi and delulu shows how the internet is reshaping language, while words like digital decay and fast tech reveal our shifting relationship with technology. Each new word added to the dictionary represents a moment where a term has become so essential to our communication that it earns a permanent place, cementing its role as a historical record for future generations.
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