The online edition of the Cambridge Dictionary has added 6,000 new entries in the past year, including words like “skibidi,” “delulu,” and “tradwife,” which were made popular by Gen Z and Gen Alpha, the publisher announced on Monday.
According to Cambridge University Press, the term “tradwife,” which is a portmanteau of “traditional wife,” represents “a growing, controversial trend that embraces traditional gender roles on Instagram and TikTok.”
Additionally, the dictionary took on the task of characterizing the phrase “skibidi,” which has gained popularity in internet memes, as having “different meanings, such as cool or bad, or can be used with no real meaning.”
The YouTube channel “Skibidi Toilet” disseminated the meaningless term, which is linked to the useless, “brain rot” information that Gen Alpha’s predominately digital lifestyle consumes on social media.
Delulu, which comes from the term delusional, is defined by the dictionary as “believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to.”
It used Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s 2025 speech in parliament, for instance, in which he used the phrase “delulu with no solulu.”
“Words like delulu and skibidi don’t appear in the Cambridge Dictionary very often,” said Colin McIntosh, manager of the Lexical Program at the Cambridge Dictionary.
“We only include words where we believe they will be enduring. The way the English language is evolving due to internet culture is fascinating to see and document in a dictionary.
Other new terms include “lewk,” which refers to a distinctive dress style made popular by RuPaul’s Drag Race, and “inspo,” which is short for inspiration.
The term “mouse jiggler,” which refers to a method of feigning to be employed when you are not, was coined by the work from home culture.
Additionally, there are “forever chemicals,” which are synthetic substances that persist in the environment for years and have become more popular as worries about the irreversible effects of climate change on human and environmental health have grown.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
