by InTrieste
The influence of social media on everyday language is evident in Cambridge Dictionary’s latest update. Over the past year, the UK-based dictionary added 6,000 new words and phrases to its online edition, including terms inspired by TikTok and internet culture such as “skibidi,” “delulu,” and “tradwife.”
For those less familiar with online trends, some of the example sentences provided to illustrate these new words may seem puzzling. How, for instance, does one interpret “that wasn’t very skibidi rizz of you” or “As Gen Z say, I’ve entered my ‘delulu era’”?
Cambridge Dictionary defines “skibidi” as a word with multiple meanings, including “cool” or “bad,” or as a humorous term without a fixed definition. “Delulu,” a play on the word delusional, describes “believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to.”
The term skibidi emerged from Skibidi Toilet, a viral animated YouTube series in which human heads emerge from toilets. Delulu originated roughly a decade ago as a term for particularly obsessive K-pop fans, but it has since broadened to describe online delusion more generally. The word gained mainstream attention in March when Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used the phrase “they are delulu with no solulu” during a parliamentary speech after being challenged by podcast hosts.
“It’s not every day you get to see words like skibidi and delulu make their way into the Cambridge Dictionary,” said Colin McIntosh, the dictionary’s lexical program manager. “We only add words where we think they’ll have staying power. Internet culture is changing the English language, and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary.”
Other recent additions include “tradwife,” short for “traditional wife,” often used to describe influencers who celebrate conventional domestic roles, and “broligarchy,” a blend of “bro” and “oligarchy,” referring to tech leaders who attended former President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Language evolves not only through new words but also through shifts in meaning for existing terms. For example, “snackable,” once primarily associated with food, now also describes online content that can be consumed in short bursts. Similarly, phrases like “red flag” and “green flag” have expanded beyond their literal meanings to describe undesirable or desirable traits in a partner.
