Cambridge Dictionary Includes Viral TikTok Terms in Its Lexicon
(MENAFN) The Cambridge Dictionary has officially expanded its lexicon to include several viral terms born from TikTok culture, reflecting the growing influence of online trends on mainstream English.
“Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary,” said Colin McIntosh, lexical program manager at Cambridge Dictionary.
Among the new entries is skibidi, a term that surged in popularity due to Skibidi Toilet, a bizarre yet widely shared animated YouTube series where human heads emerge from toilet bowls. According to Cambridge, skibidi is now defined as “a word that can have different meanings such as ‘cool’ or ‘bad’, or can be used with no real meaning as a joke,’ an example being: ‘What the skibidi are you doing?’”
Other additions include delulu—a shortened form of delusional, which the dictionary defines as “believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to.” Also added is tradwife, used to describe conservative female influencers who promote traditional domestic roles for women, especially on platforms like TikTok.
“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,” McIntosh noted.
The move has sparked criticism from some cultural commentators, particularly from older generations and those less immersed in online spaces. Lee Escobedo, a U.S. writer and artist, weighed in: “Skibidi brainrot encapsulates a generation fluent in irony but starved for meaning. This kind of hyper-chaotic media serves as both entertainment and an ambient worldview for young men raised online. Their minds normalize prank-as-expression.”
The latest update signals a broader recognition of how internet-driven language, once dismissed as fleeting slang, is increasingly shaping modern English vocabulary.
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