Merriam-Webster Dictionary unveiled an update to its listings by incorporating 690 new words, among them sports-related terms like “beast mode,” “bracketology” and “GOATED” on Monday.
“We’re very excited by this new batch of words,” said Merriam-Webster Editor at Large Peter Sokolowski. “We hope there is as much insight and satisfaction in reading them as we got from defining them.”
Beast mode is defined as “an extremely aggressive or energetic style or manner that someone (such as an athlete) adopts temporarily (as to overpower an opponent in a fight or competition).”
Bracketology is the study of tournament brackets, pertaining largely to the NCAA basketball tournament beginning in March. GOATED – derived from the term Greatest of All Time – describes someone who’s the best ever at what they do.
Social media terms also figure prominently in the new definitions, with the addition of "thirst trap" (“a photo or video shared to attract attention”), "grammable" (“suitable to be posted on Instagram”), and "finsta" (“a secret or incognito account on Instagram.”)
Other new words entering the nearly 200-year-old publisher’s lexicon are food-related, such as "chef’s kiss" – a gesture known to anyone who has cooked or tasted a culinary masterpiece for which there are no words. "Cheffy" and "smashburger" are also on the list, with the former describing the qualities of a professional chef and the latter being the process of pressing a hamburger patty onto a heated grill.
Merriam-Webster says its dictionary now includes about 470,000 entries.
