Merriam‑Webster adds 1,400 words including vibe‑coding, Rickroll, looksmaxxing and Sunday scaries

Merriam‑Webster announced an update that adds 1,400 words and definitions to its online dictionary. The new entries reflect language that editors found in sustained use across media and everyday communication.

• Social and pop culture: Rickroll, Promposal, cuffing season, Sunday scaries, Mandela Effect, parasocial.
• Internet and slang: looksmaxxing, crashout, meme coin, copium.
• Technology and AI: vibe‑coding (defined as using an AI system to generate computer code), AGI (artificial general intelligence), uncanny valley, and a noun sense of compute to mean the processing resources needed to run a system.
• Food and leisure: superfood, cake pop, bao bun, chili crisp, yacht rock.

Merriam‑Webster's editors track how words and meanings are used over time. Addition to the dictionary follows evidence that a word has been used widely and consistently. The publisher framed this batch as reflecting how language has changed across areas such as how people build software, online culture, relationships and food trends. Gregory Barlow, Merriam‑Webster's president, said the organization's mission is to chronicle language change today as it has for almost 200 years.

What some of the entries mean (based on the announcement)

• Vibe‑coding: the act or practice of using an artificial intelligence system to generate computer code.
• Looksmaxxing: the practice of taking one or more, sometimes extreme or dangerous, measures intended to increase one's physical attractiveness.
• Parasocial: a one‑sided emotional connection with a person you don't know, often a celebrity or fictional character.
• Rickroll: a bait‑and‑switch prank that sends someone a link promising one thing but leading to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."
• Meme coin: typically a cryptocurrency created as a joke or tribute to an internet meme or celebrity, generally with little practical use.
• Compute (noun sense): the processing resources needed to run a computer system.

The update groups entries that document everyday life and emerging practices: language spawned by social media and online communities, terms tied to modern relationships and mental states, and vocabulary that grew alongside new technologies. It also includes culinary items and niche cultural labels that crossed into common usage.

If you encounter modern slang, tech jargon or new food names in conversation or online, you can now often find an authoritative definition on Merriam‑Webster's site. Inclusion signals that editors saw sustained usage, not necessarily that the term was recently created.

Media outlets highlighted the mix of entries spanning internet culture and AI-related vocabulary. Coverage pointed out that adding a word is evidence of established usage rather than invention, and that the update aims to reflect current language across varied domains.