Love seeing what's on the "new words of the year" list? Discover the words that made their debut the same year you did.
Every Word Coined the Year You Were Born
Updated on Jun. 27, 2025
1950
By 1950, suburbia was booming—snowblowers cleared the driveway and charge cards were used at shopping malls.
- Action figure
- Blindside
- Charge card
- Menopause
- Nail-biter
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Shopping mall
- Side hustle
- Snowblower
- Tank top
1951
Some of 1951’s words of the year—truck stops and teleprompters—pointed to how fast life was moving.
- Black tie
- Half bath
- Meat and potatoes
- Murphy’s Law
- Nerd
- Scattershot
- Teleprompter
- Trailblazing
- Truck stop
- Whiteboard
1952
Decades later, we still love junk food and hate dust bunnies.
- Answering service
- Countdown
- Defibrillator
- Dust bunny
- Hawaiian shirt
- Junk food
- Modem
- Ragtop
- Scuba
- Swing state
1953
The inclusion of ballpoint pens, fish sticks and dust mops in 1953’s words of the year list reflected a growing embrace of convenience.
- Ballpoint pen
- Day trader
- Dust mop
- Fish stick
- Mock turtleneck
- RSVP
- Skateboard
- Slumlord
- Sunblock
- UFO
1954
Rock and roll burst onto the scene in 1954—changing music and the world forever.
- Booster seat
- Bragging rights
- Cash flow
- Couponing
- In vitro fertilization
- No-brainer
- Rain date
- Rock and roll
- Sci-fi
- Zilch
1955
I looked va-va-voom in my A-line dress.
- Aerospace
- A-line
- DIY
- Fabric softener
- Fallout shelter
- Microwave oven
- Phys ed
- Va-va-voom
- Veggie
- Weirdo
1956
By 1956, the space race had begun with liftoff, and suburban life had settled into tract houses.
- Byte
- Decaf
- Fundraise
- Green card
- Kitten heel
- Liftoff
- Meltdown
- Nitpick
- Sitcom
- Tract house
1957
In 1957’s list, lasers and amniocentesis signaled scientific breakthroughs.
- Amniocentesis
- Disco
- Doggie bag
- Laser
- Launchpad
- Loungewear
- Overkill
- Static cling
- Townhome
- Weaponize
1958
Comfort food and a rom-com may offer some relief from a panic attack.
- Bigfoot
- Comfort food
- Glitch
- Inner city
- Laundry list
- Lou Gehrig’s disease
- Panic attack
- Rom-com
- Software
- Spray can
1959
The introduction of the word biodegradable on the new words of the year list hinted at a growing sense of environmental awareness.
- Biodegradable
- Fine-tune
- Happy hour
- Hovercraft
- Minivan
- Munchies
- Pantyhose
- Queen-size
- Shtick
- Stick shift
1960
In 1960, fast food took its place at the table, drive time hit the airwaves and even the cockapoo got a name.
- AAA battery
- Cockapoo
- Coin-op
- Doofus
- Dreadlocks
- Drive time
- Fast food
- Golden oldie
- Ob-gyn
- Wait-list
1961
This year brought us the term for the busiest shopping day of the year.
- AA battery
- Affirmative action
- A-OK
- Black Friday
- Down syndrome
- Gaslighting
- Paparazzo
- Solar panel
- Toaster oven
- Unitard
1962
In 1962, that fancy room in the White House where the president works got a name.
- Carpool
- Database
- Dystopian
- Gigawatt
- Miniskirt
- Oval Office
- Speed reading
- T-ball
- Tumble dry
- Zip code
1963
In 1963, baby boomers were coming of age and space walks captured imaginations.
- Baby boomer
- Baggie
- Bodysuit
- Catch-22
- Elevator music
- Highlighter
- Mind-expanding
- Pull tab
- Space walk
- Telemarketing
1964
In 1964, black holes entered the conversation, garage sales popped up in suburbs and the pantsuit reshaped work attire.
- Black hole
- Condo
- Dweeb
- Garage sale
- Gun control
- Identity theft
- Milk crate
- Pantsuit (or pants suit)
- Sucker punch
- Talking head
1965
The first known use of hippie in the counter cultural/flower child sense was in a series of articles about the Haight-Ashbury district that began running in the San Francisco Examiner in September of this year.
- Beach read
- Cherry-pick
- Deal-breaker
- Empty-nest syndrome
- Hippie
- Jet lag
- Motor home
- Teenybopper
- Xerox
- Zit
1966
In 1966, bullet trains sped ahead, and multitasking and keypads signaled a fast-approaching digital age.
- Afro
- Baby wipe
- Bichon frise
- Bullet train
- Emergency medicine
- Hedge fund
- Keypad
- Microfiber
- Multitasking
- Unisex
1967
This year, automatic teller machines and networking hinted at a more connected future.
- Aerobics
- Automatic teller machine
- Cochlear implant
- Dance-off
- Dirtbag
- Firmware
- Flower child
- Estrogen replacement therapy
- Max out
- Networking
1968
Quite a few technology terms were added to the dictionary this year, like LED, word processor and alt key.
- Alt key
- Band-aid
- Cellulite
- Clunky
- LED
- Morning breath
- Multi-level marketing
- SPF (sun protection factor)
- Word processor
- Yippie
1969
No, a word for a chilly bird wasn’t coined this year. Cold duck is a beverage that’s a blend of sparkling burgundy and champagne.
- Bubblegum
- Cold duck
- Delete key
- Limousine liberal
- Microchip
- Rip-off
- Sexual harassment
- String bikini
- Video vérité
- Windsurfing
1970
The term beeper was coined in 1970, but people under the age of 25 probably don’t know what a beeper is.
- Beeper
- Control freak
- Dorky
- First responder
- Granola
- Kwanzaa
- Labradoodle
- Love handles
- Newbie
- Toll-free
1971
In 1971, HMOs shaped health care and sell-by dates hit the fridge.
- 800 number
- Asperger’s syndrome
- Blow-dryer
- Day job
- High-concept
- HMO (health maintenance organization)
- Kickboxing
- Mirandize
- Sell-by date
- VCR
1972
In 1972, living wills addressed end-of-life choices, and flextime redefined the workday.
- Best-case
- Flash drive
- Flextime
- Gentrify
- Living will
- Lumpectomy
- Mani-pedi
- Sound bite
- User-friendly
- Women’s studies
1973
Apparently, 1973 was a year of body-consciousness: Bikini wax, anti-cellulite and underwire bras were all added to the dictionary.
- Affluenza
- Anti-cellulite
- Bikini wax
- Detox
- Fact-check
- Slum
- Soccer mom
- Underwire
- Video game
- Weight room
1974
In 1974, telecommuting hinted at the future of work that would one day become routine for many of us.
- Alternative music
- Biofuel
- Clicker
- CT scan
- Ditzy
- Heimlich maneuver
- IRA (Individual Retirement Account)
- Probiotic
- Supermom
- Telecommute
1975
Think anyone in 1975 knew how important mobile phones and debit cards would be in the future?
- Air-kiss
- Brick-and-mortar
- Date rape
- Debit card
- Downsize
- Fluoxetine
- Mobile phone
- Off-the-books
- Playdate
- Sleep apnea
1976
You’re probably wondering what a fern bar even is: It’s a slang term for an upscale singles bar (often decorated with greenery).
- Athleisure
- Fern bar
- Butterfly effect
- Couch potato
- Digital camera
- Ebola virus
- Idiotproof
- Mesclun
- Skeevy
- Wannabe
1977
It’s weird to think that there was a time when people didn’t use the term text message.
- Bad cholesterol
- Codependency
- Gazillion
- Karaoke
- Pre-K
- Shopaholic
- Strip mall
- Text message
- Upload
- Warp speed
1978
The term for getting together face-to-face debuted in 1978; the FaceTime video chat app would arrive a few decades later.
- Bed-and-breakfast
- Chemical peel
- Face time
- Gap year
- Information technology
- Platinum record
- Sticky note
- Stockholm syndrome
- Tea light
- Whataboutism
1979
This list of words makes you want to go to a food court in your buffalo plaid jacket and order a California roll.
- Advance directive
- Backslash
- Buffalo plaid
- California roll
- Compact disc
- Food court
- Hip-hop
- Lyme disease
- Supermoon
1980
Most of these terms on the 1980 words of the year list are pretty self-explanatory—except for Yuppie, which stands for (Y)oung (U)rban (P)rofessional.
- Air guitar
- Baby bump
- Chill out
- Ecotourism
- Foodie
- Gridlocked
- High five
- Voicemail
- Wind farm
- Yuppie
1981
It’s tough to imagine Super Bowl Sunday without Buffalo wings.
- Biodiesel
- Buffalo wings
- Camcorder
- Face-plant
- Infomercial
- Lemon law
- Photo op
- Screen saver
- Spreadsheet
- Unsubscribe
1982
Have you ever had turducken? The word is a portmanteau for a deboned chicken stuffed inside a deboned duck stuffed inside a deboned turkey, and it’s a showstopping holiday entrée.
- AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
- Bias crime
- Breakdancer
- Cyberspace
- Domain name
- Immersion blender
- Impostor syndrome
- Snail mail
- Speed dial
- Turducken
1983
The term liposuction was coined in 1983, but the procedure has changed a lot since then.
- Beta test
- BOGO
- Empowered
- FLOTUS
- Guac
- Information superhighway
- Liposuction
- Metadata
- Ringtone
- Screenshot
1984
A few important tech terms—earbuds, drop-down (as in menu), laptop and search engine—made their debut this year.
- Drop-down
- Earbud
- EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards)
- Glass ceiling
- Heat index
- Hate crime
- Laptop
- Moonwalk
- Pitmaster
- Search engine
1985
Can you remember your favorite ’80s boy band? Menudo, New Edition, New Kids on the Block?
- 411
- Anime
- Boy band
- Caller ID
- Cosmeceutical
- IP address
- Latte
- Mixtape
- Mood board
- Tankini
1986
In 1986, after British scientists revealed a recurring springtime thinning of the ozone layer over Antarctica, the term entered popular use.
- Bungee jump
- Chat room
- Cringey
- Deets
- Internet
- McJob
- Ozone layer
- Portobello
- Sippy cup
- SUV
1987
In 1987, emoticons were far simpler than today’s expressive emojis. They were just clever arrangements of keyboard symbols, like :) and :/ .
- Acid-washed
- ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
- Bomb cyclone
- Cross-trainer
- Dad joke
- Emoticon
- Generation X
- In-line skate
- Physician-assisted suicide
- Thirtysomething
1988
If you’re experiencing road rage, listening to some emo music might help.
- Channel surfing
- Docuseries
- E-book
- Emo
- Food desert
- Hyperlink
- Mommy track
- Onboarding
- Road rage
- Unibrow
1989
In 1989, new words like eco-friendly and intersectionality signaled a growing social consciousness.
- Air quotes
- Caffeinate
- Cyberporn
- Eco-friendly
- Helicopter parent
- Intersectionality
- Janky
- Puggle
- Queso
- Scrunchie
1990
This year gave us a new digital vocabulary: Internet Service Provider, World Wide Web and the ever-annoying spam all made their debut.
- Big-box
- Curated
- Gift card
- Internet Service Provider
- McMansion
- Mixed martial arts
- Shout-out
- Spam
- Tighty-whities
- World Wide Web
1991
The term 3D printer was coined in 1991, but we’re still learning what it can do.
- 3D printer
- Bestie
- Brainfreeze
- Carjacking
- Heteronormative
- Infinity pool
- SIM card
- Time suck
- Vacay
- Zoodle
1992
This year brought a whole bunch of new slang terms, like buzzkill, smack talk and chef’s kiss.
- Arm candy
- BRCA
- Buzzkill
- Chef’s kiss
- Down-low
- Flash drive
- Nepo baby
- Smack talk
- Solopreneur
- Taliban
1993
Several of this year’s new words (body camera, click-through, e-commerce—even booty call) pointed to a future increasingly shaped by tech.
- Body camera
- Booty call
- Click-through
- Cosplay
- DVD
- E-commerce
- Fashionista
- Game changer
- Macaron
- Robocall
1994
The term cisgender refers to someone whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. It’s arguably a retronym—a word used to describe what was once considered the default—as language evolved to include more diverse gender identities. (Retronym was added to the dictionary in 1980, BTW.)
- Astroturf
- Bootylicious
- Botox
- Cisgender
- Chillax
- Dot-com
- LASIK
- Metrosexual
- Roofie
- Social media
1995
Another term about sexual orientation, genderqueer, is an umbrella term to describe anyone who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions and identifies with neither, both or a combination of male and female genders.
- Bridezilla
- E-tail
- Genderqueer
- Instant messaging
- Jorts
- Live stream
- On-brand
- Refinance
- Regift
- Stalkerazzo
1996
Years later, fist bumps are still everywhere. Flip phones, not so much.
- Body-shaming
- Cloud computing
- Face-palm
- Fist bump
- Flip phone
- Gastropub
- GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)
- Phishing
- Senior moment
- Smartwatch
1997
In 1997, emoticons evolved into something new: emojis, colorful symbols that took digital expression to the next level.
- Amber Alert
- Auto-tune
- Deep state
- Elliptical trainer
- Emoji
- Epigenomics
- Freegan
- Friend with benefits
- Judgy
- Toothfish
1998
Social networking came to light in 1998, and so did cyberbullying.
- Amirite
- Cord-cutter
- Cyberbullying
- Dark web
- Flexitarian
- Microgreen
- Perfect storm
- Social networking
- Thermobaric
- Webinar
1999
Since the term was coined in 1999, blogs have exploded in popularity. Anyone can start one—just keep the clickbait headlines to a minimum.
- Active shooter
- Adorkable
- Bling
- Blog
- Carbon footprint
- Clickbait
- E-waste
- K-pop
- Padawan
- Vape
2000
It’s hard to imagine a time before the word Google. How did we search for anything?
- Abandonware
- Crudo
- Crunk
- Downvote
- Multi-factor authentication
- Siloed
- Speed dating
- Sudoku
- TiVo
2001
Do the sound of a ticking clock, the hum of fluorescent lights or someone’s chewing (or even breathing) drive you up the wall? You, my friend, might have misophonia.
- Ack
- Anti-vaxxer
- Big Bad
- Bromance
- Cankle
- Captcha
- Cornhole
- Lean in
- Misophonia
- Twerking
2002
In 2002, we finally got a word for holding out your camera to snap a photo of yourself: selfie. Now, how’s this lighting?
- Airplane mode
- Beast mode
- Exoneree
- Humblebrag
- Neurodivergent
- Norovirus
- Reggaeton
- Selfie
- Thumb drive
- Vlog
2003
Some 2003 terms—dad bod, muffin top and manscaping—put bodies in the spotlight, while binge-watch defined a new way to consume TV.
- Binge-watch
- Dad bod
- Electronic cigarette
- Flash mob
- Manscaping
- Meat sweats
- Muffin top
- Net neutrality
- Social distancing
- Unfriend
2004
New terms like paywall, defriend, sharing economy and podcast revealed how online life was shifting fast.
- Aromantic
- Chonky
- Defriend
- FOMO
- Life hack
- Paywall
- Podcast
- Quadcopter
- Sharing economy
- Waterboarding
2005
Blogging and podcasting got a bit more niche this year, with the debut of new terms like microblogging and vodcast.
- Butt-dial
- Debbie Downer
- Glamping
- Locavore
- Microblogging
- Mumblecore
- Rage quit
- Sexting
- Truthiness
- Vodcast
2006
So much has changed since 2006 that you may want to update your bucket list.
- Bucket list
- Bussin’
- Copypasta
- Crowdsourcing
- Dumpster fire
- Gamification
- Sizzle reel
- Ski cross
- Street corn
- Totes
2007
The year brought us the hashtag. #2007rocked #newwordsarecool
- Coworking
- Crowdfunding
- Epic fail
- Friendsgiving
- Hashtag
- Latinx
- Listicle
- Mic drop
- Shadow ban
- Tweetstorm
2008
One thing’s for sure: A fatberg is anything but adorbs.
- Adorbs
- Bitcoin
- Fatberg
- Ghost pepper
- Hate-watch
- Infinity scarf
- Mansplain
- Me Too
- Photobomb
- Unfollow
2009
In 2009, a new element, Copernicium, was added to the periodic table, and the dictionary.
- Birtherism
- Bro-ey
- Copernicium
- Cryptocurrency
- Dox
- Gig economy
- Gig worker
- Jeggings
- Lewk
- Makerspace
2010
In 2010, Instagram made everything look better, Galentine’s Day made friendship cooler than romance and filter bubbles quietly made sure we only saw what we already agreed with.
- 5G
- Arab Spring
- Battle rope
- Bump stock
- Deadname
- Filter bubble
- Forever chemical
- Galentine’s Day
- Misogynoir
BTW: Just as new words are popping up on the words of the year list, some fall by the wayside over time. These awesome words are no longer in common use but probably should be—because who doesn’t hope for a buss from their favorite snoutfair?
About the experts
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Why trust us
At Reader’s Digest, we’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers’ personal experiences where appropriate. For this piece on the “Words of the Year” list, Jo Ann Liguori tapped her decades of experience as a copy editor to ensure that all information is accurate and offers the best possible advice to readers. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- Jess Zafarris, etymology expert, founder of Useless Etymology, co-host of the Words Unravelled podcast and author of several books, including Words from Hell; phone interview, June 9, 2025
- Gregory Barlow, president of Merriam-Webster
- Peter Sokolowski, editor at large of Merriam-Webster, an editor with Merriam-Webster for 30 years and co-host of the Word Matters podcast
- Merriam-Webster: “200 New Words and Definitions Added to Merriam-Webster.com”
- Merriam-Webster: “Time Traveler”
