For its 100th-anniversary edition, the officials behind the Concise Oxford English Dictionary are taking a leap into the modern, pop culture lexicon with the addition of words inspired by a social media culture. Included among the 400 newly sanctioned English words are woot (!), retweet, sexting, noob, and cyberbullying. According to the dictionary's editors, the words were selected based on the Read more

There are so many dictionaries, it seems like any combination of letters could call itself a word, find an agent, and be accepted into one. Not a month ago the Oxford English Dictionary added 39 words to its centuries-old collection, and this week the New Oxford American Dictionary released its 2010 words. Standards seem lower, but not much, for American dictionaries. There were a few crossovers Read more

Should "tanorexia" really be added to the Oxford English Dictionary? Probably not, even though it's been submitted for possible inclusion. Like the words that define a decade, many neologisms that seem very important at the time could sound quite silly later. Hence, Oxford's "vault" full of words submitted for possible inclusion but not deemed worthy for the dictionary. Says OED senior Read more

"It's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature." — Betti Cadmus, district spokesperson, for Southern California's Menifee Union School District discusses future plans after banning the 10th edition Merriam-Webster's dictionary. The district removed the dictionary from the fourth and fifth grades for defining "oral sex." It's defined as Read more

The New Oxford American Dictionary just released its annual Word of the Year and it's unsurprisingly tech-related. This year's honor goes to "unfriend," defined as by the dictionary as, "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook." The Word of the Year is chosen from newly created words by researchers based on language trends, popularity, and cultural Read more