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Cambridge Dictionary adds Gen Z slang like ‘skibidi,’ ‘tradwife,’ and ‘delulu,’ sparks backlash
Cambridge Dictionary adds 6,000 new words, including Gen Z slang like 'skibidi', sparking online criticism.
Cambridge Dictionary's latest addition of 6,000 new words, including Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang terms “skibidi,” “tradwife”, and “delulu”, has sparked criticism online. However, the world’s largest online dictionary has defended the additions, claiming that internet culture is transforming the English language.
The new entries include “skibidi,” a nonsensical term that originated in a viral animated YouTube series; “tradwife,” short for “traditional wife,” a TikTok-driven label for married women who post homemaking content online; and “delulu,” a popular internet shorthand for “delusional.”
“Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary. It’s not every day you get to see words like ‘skibidi’ and ‘delulu’ make their way into the Cambridge Dictionary. We only add words where we think they’ll have staying power,” Colin McIntosh, lexical program manager at Cambridge Dictionary, said in a statement to the New York Post.
The new additions to the dictionary have sparked surprise for many who labelled the words as "gibberish".
“Congratulations English is no longer a language, it’s a TikTok comment section,” one X user wrote.
“I’m usually fine with language evolving and changing and the dictionary keeping up but do not add the gibberish word Skibidi to the dictionary,” a second user added.
Alongside internet slang, the dictionary has also added a few work-from-home-inspired terms born out of the post-pandemic era, such as “mouse jiggler”, a device or software that fakes activity to look busy online, as well as workplace relationship phrases like “work wife” and “work spouse.”
