Fall 2026 Dictionary Updates Add Glow-Up, Rickroll, and OED Revivals

Fall 2026 has produced two large dictionary announcements. Merriam-Webster added 1,400 new words and definitions to its website in September, and the Oxford English Dictionary published quarterly updates that revised older entries and documented new senses. The most visible additions are internet slang and fandom vocabulary; weather, astrology, and true-crime terms are not the headline categories this cycle, but the update still offers practical entry points for specialized readers.

Merriam-Webster’s 1,400 new entries

Merriam-Webster announced 1,400 new words and definitions, as reported by ABC News and The Hill. The additions include glow-up, defined as “a usually dramatic enhancement especially to someone’s or something’s physical appearance,” and cuffing season, defined as “a time of the year when people who are not married or in a relationship begin looking for a short-term romantic partner to spend the colder months of the year with.” Other entries include looksmaxxing, parasocial, Rickroll, meme coin, promposal, and Mandela Effect. Tech terms added include vibe coding, AGI, compute as a noun, and uncanny valley. Merriam-Webster itself called the update a “glow-up,” and WBAL-TV described the dictionary as “wordmaxxing.”

The Oxford English Dictionary’s older new words

The OED is a historical dictionary containing over 500,000 entries and 3.5 million quotations, and its quarterly updates revise existing entries as well as adding new words and senses. In June 2026 the OED added more than 900 new words, phrases, and senses, including floordrobe, humblebrag, life hack, long game, and four-legged friend; the earliest quotation for four-legged friend is from 1778 and refers to a donkey. Other additions include yeah nah, whose meaning depends on context for Australian and New Zealand speakers, and out of station, recorded in 1857 for ships and now used in South Asian, East African, and West African English for a person away from their usual location. The OED also found au contraire in an English context from 1697, borrowed from French. In March, the OED revised word families such as bounce, drop, heal, track, and watch, with evidence of healing gardens from 1707, drop nets from 1695, and watchalong from 1966. Futurescape dates from the 1970s and futurama from 1939, when it named a New York World’s Fair exhibit.

Seasonal language and coastal weather

None of the new Merriam-Webster or OED entries are storm, tide, or wave terms. Cuffing season is seasonal rather than meteorological, but it is the closest entry to a weather-related addition. Readers who need local coastal conditions while working with seasonal vocabulary can check Whangamata surf and tide data.

Astrology’s older dictionary presence

The OED entry for zone lists astrology among its subject areas, with that sense recorded from Middle English; the noun has 19 meanings in total. The entry has not yet been fully revised, but the earliest known use of zone is from the Middle English period. Astrological vocabulary therefore sits in the historical record even when it does not appear in a new-words announcement. For current zodiac readings, free daily horoscopes are published separately.

True-crime language and primary documents

The fall 2026 updates do not include new crime-specific entries. True-crime vocabulary often gains meaning from primary documents, and the 1934 Budd letter is one such document. The full letter is preserved at Albert Fish’s Budd letter archive.

What word watchers should do next

Merriam-Webster’s large update shows how quickly internet slang enters the dictionary when usage is widespread. The OED’s revisions show that many words we call new have documented histories going back decades or centuries. The absence of a new weather, astrology, or crime vocabulary wave this cycle does not mean those fields are unrecorded; their terms often sit in older senses or primary documents. Quarterly updates are the best time to check the evidence for a word you use.