From Apple’s emoji updates to Pantone’s colour of the year, there are some novelties in the world that reflect huge cultural change. Now, we’d like to draw your attention to Dictionary.com’s biggest update ever.
It’s safe to say 2020 has been an unprecedented year—from a pandemic to worldwide protests, these events have not only changed the course of our lives but our language too (how many of you knew what “quarantinis” were this time last year?).
To reflect this change, Dictionary.com has released its biggest update ever—over 15,000 entries have been amended with topics ranging from race and sexual orientation to climate change and internet culture.
This year, Dictionary.com has gone about things a little differently because this time around, the online platform has gone all out to put people first, not practices, and ensure definitions reflect and respect how people use language.
There’s been a huge revision on how the platform defines words that use “-sexual” (bisexual, pansexual) to help eliminate heterosexual bias in language. The word “Pride” is now used with a capital “P” and has been changed to “human sexual experience and identity”. Words like ace, ambisextrous, asexual, biromantic, deadname, gender-inclusive, gender diversity and “trans+” have also been added (finally).
Another big change you’ll see at Dictionary.com is that the word “Black” is now capitalised too (in reference to people). This now aligns with the dictionary’s practices of using initial capital letters for other ethnic ground and national identities eg. Hispanic.
On top of this, you’ll now find words used in everyday politics and pop culture which defined the late 2010s including:
- Amirite
- Contouring
- Dead white male
- DGAF
- Empty suit
- Gender reveal
- GOAT
- Ish
- Information bubble
- MeToo
- Swole
- Twitch
- Ecoanxiety
- Off-grid
You can check out more of the changes here.
And make sure to scope out your horoscope this month, right here.
Image credit: Jiroe