The words and phrases presented here have been observed recently in written or spoken English by one of our staff or a special team employed to monitor the language for such neologisms, or new words. Some of them will undoubtedly be short-lived, some will prove popular and eventually make it into our dictionaries – it is very difficult to predict which will do which, particularly because most of these words have only just started appearing. Therefore we present them here, separately from our main dictionaries, for users’ interest and (hopefully) entertainment. Source information, about where the word was read or heard, is usually included with the original context.
These words and phrases can appear in either British or American English; the source information will usually give an indication of this. The entries for these new words are not as fully-featured as those on the Cambridge Dictionary site – for example, there is not as much grammar information – because it is difficult to give such information with accuracy as the words are still so new in the language.
We make no claims that these words will still be popular in a year’s time, nor do we approve or disapprove them – we leave it up to you to vote on whether the words should be added to the dictionary.