All the bibliophiles out there will be agog to hear that more words have been added to dictionary.com’s extensive list. This interesting information came to us from Fox News in their article, “Dictionary.com adds hundreds of new entries for 2021, including a few very cromulent words.”
The updated database will contain a plethora of new entries and definitions, many of which were inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic or the social and cultural movements over the past year. However, some of the words that have been added are not exactly words.
Culture, entertainment, social and current events always influence the additions of words and this is no different. Inspired by the long run animated series, The Simpsons, two words – cromulent and embiggen – have been adopted and therefore, legitimizing them as words.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary already had an entry for embiggen, while the Oxford English Dictionary has entries for both.
My inner wordsmith weeps a little.
Melody K. Smith
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