#dictionarycom-word-of-the-year

#dictionarycom-word-of-the-year

Wardle is back to try his luck again. The jury is out on whether this is admirable or greedy, brave or foolish. It does seem to suggest that there are two types of people in this realm: the haves and the have-yachts, if you will.

The Merriam-Webster editor Peter Sokolowski introduced the crowd of assembled nerds to the idea that a dictionary is not a static document but a living object, constantly updated and remade in response to how people write and speak. In a talk titled "The Dictionary as Data," Sokolowski emphasized that the editors at Merriam-Webster look to how the general public uses language to guide their work.

Under an oak-beamed ceiling on the top floor of one of Washington, D.C.'s coolest museums, Planet Word, more than 90 kids gathered last April to vie for $5,000 and youth Scrabble bragging rights. The North American School Scrabble Championship is serious business. The No. 1 high-school seed was ranked in the top 150 of all players in the U.S. and Canada.

'Gen Z's relationship with language is incredibly fast-moving. Unlike previous generations, they are growing up in a digital environment where new words can emerge, become popular or "cringe" within a matter of months...or even weeks! Platforms like Instagram or TikTok definitely accelerate this cycle: a phrase might start as a joke or trend within a niche community, go viral globally, and then quickly become overused.'

The day Josh Wardle sold Wordle to the New York Times, in 2022, for more than a million dollars, should have been a moment of triumph. The game, which gives players six chances to guess a five-letter word, had unexpectedly become a global sensation, and Wardle had already begun to receive e-mails from puzzle designers seeking his input on their own ideas.

Merriam-Webster named "slop" its 2025 word of the year, defining it as "digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence." In its announcement, Merriam-Webster noted that, like " slime, sludge, and muck, slop has the wet sound of something you don't want to touch." Similarly, The New York Times observed that slop, in graphic terms, "conjures images of heaps of unappetizing food being shoveled into troughs."

1. Tongue in cheek 2. Old wives' tales 3. Statute of limitations 4. To be specific 5. Nipped in the bud 6. Get down to brass tacks 7. Deep-seated hatred 8. All intents and purposes 9. Wheelbarrow 10. Champing at the bit 11. Jury-rigged 12. Ulterior motive 13. Bald-faced lie 14. Dog eat dog world 15. Chump change 16. Dime a dozen 17. Duct tape 18. Can't see the forest for the trees 19. Quote unquote 20. Could have 21. Chalk it up 22. Iced tea 23. Take for granted 24. Blessing in disguise 25. Bated breath

This year, Maltby, who was first hired by the Harper's editor emeritus Lewis H. Lapham, celebrates fifty years writing the magazine's monthly cryptic crossword. (To mark the occasion, I've included a cryptic clue below.) Maltby describes the puzzle as a "little universe on the back page," like a god estranged from his own intelligent design. It is "kind of lonely," he told me. But for his many loyal solvers, Maltby has always made this universe feel lively and large.

This week's puzzle was constructed by Rebecca Goldstein and Kelsey Dixon, and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Rebecca is a crossword constructor from the Bay Area, and Kelsey is a crossword constructor from Chicago. They both lived in Atlanta in the '90s, which is why Kelsey has been trying to start a rumor that Rebecca was her childhood babysitter. They hope you don't take the puzzle too seriously!