“Dad bod,” “Super-Spreader” and “Amirite” Among Words Added to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary

Merriam Webster has added 455 new words to its dictionary; among the new additions are “Dad bod,” “Amirite,” and “super–spreader.”

The new words have been categorized into several groups based on their source, including words from online culture and communication, words related to coronavirus, and words from the tech and science world.

Pop culture terms like “faux-hawk” and “dad bod” made the list. Internet slang – including abbreviations like “TBH” (to be honest) and “FTW” (for the win) were also added. And the term “Amirite” was added as a slang term used in writing in place of the rhetorical “am I right.” Merriam-Webster defines the term as a way “to represent or imitate the use of this phrase as a tag question in informal speech.”

There were also new words added to our vocabulary that come from the new Post COVID-19 world. There’s “Super-spreader,” which is a person who is highly contagious or an event or location at which a significant number of people contract the same communicable disease, and “vaccine passport,”  which refers to a physical or digital document providing proof of vaccination against one or more infectious diseases.