Word of the Year 2026: Every Dictionary's Pick, and When Each Is Announced
No dictionary has named its 2026 Word of the Year yet. When Oxford, Cambridge, Collins, Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com announce, and every pick since 2023.
As of 16 October 2026, none of the major English dictionaries has named a 2026 Word of the Year. Going by 2025, Dictionary.com announces first (29 October 2025), then Collins (6 November), Cambridge (18 November), Macquarie (24 November), Oxford (1 December) and Merriam-Webster (15 December). The 2025 winners were 67, vibe coding, parasocial, AI slop, rage bait and slop.
Every autumn the big dictionaries each name a Word of the Year, and every year they pick different words. This page lists every pick since 2023 and will add the 2026 winners as they are announced.
As of 16 October 2026, no major English dictionary has named its 2026 word. Here is when to expect them, and what they chose before.
When each 2026 Word of the Year is likely to be announced
The publishers do not announce their dates in advance. The 2025 announcement dates are the best guide:
| Dictionary | 2025 announcement | 2026 status (16 Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Dictionary.com | 29 October 2025 | Not announced |
| Collins | 6 November 2025 | Not announced |
| Cambridge | 18 November 2025 | Not announced |
| Macquarie (Australia) | 24 November 2025 | 2026 longlist published; public vote "opens soon" |
| Oxford | 1 December 2025 | Not announced |
| Merriam-Webster | 15 December 2025 | Not announced |
| American Dialect Society | 9 January 2026 | Nominations open until New Year's Eve; vote at its January 2027 meeting |
Every Word of the Year since 2023
| Dictionary | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oxford | rage bait | brain rot | rizz |
| Cambridge | parasocial | manifest | hallucinate |
| Collins | vibe coding | brat | AI |
| Merriam-Webster | slop | polarization | authentic |
| Dictionary.com | 67 | demure | hallucinate |
| Macquarie (Committee's Choice) | AI slop | enshittification | cozzie livs |
| American Dialect Society | slop | rawdog | enshittification |
Two patterns stand out. In 2025 three of the seven picks were about low-quality AI content (slop, AI slop) or AI itself (vibe coding). And in each of the last three years at least one winner came straight out of Gen Z or Gen Alpha online culture.
The Gen Alpha and Gen Z words that won
- Rizz (Oxford, 2023): charm, or the ability to attract a partner.
- Brain rot (Oxford, 2024): the supposed decline of a person's mental state from too much trivial online content.
- Demure (Dictionary.com, 2024): a TikTok slang use for refined, modest behaviour or style.
- Brat (Collins, 2024): a confident, independent, hedonistic attitude, from the title of a 2024 album.
- 67 (Dictionary.com, 2025): the Gen Alpha interjection, usually said with a hand gesture, that has no fixed meaning.
What parents might hear in 2026
The words children searched for most in 2026 so far, according to a study of Google searches reported by Euronews in September, include chud, mogging, aura farming, larping, crash out and bop. Several are insults, and two are crude; the slang dictionary says which. None is a confirmed Word of the Year candidate: dictionaries pick on usage evidence, not search volume.
Sources
- Oxford University Press: Word of the Year (2023 to 2025 announcements).
- Cambridge University (18 November 2025). Cambridge Dictionary reveals Word of the Year 2025.
- Collins (6 November 2025). Collins Word of the Year 2025.
- Dictionary.com: Word of the Year 2025, 2024, 2023.
- Macquarie Dictionary: Word of the Year 2025; Words to watch 2026.
- American Dialect Society: 2025 Word of the Year is slop; nominations for 2026.
- Merriam-Webster's 2025 (slop, 15 December 2025), 2024 (polarization) and 2023 (authentic) picks, and Collins' 2024 (brat) and 2023 (AI) picks, as reported by the Associated Press and other news outlets.