Scrabble just updated its list of approved words for the first time in four years, and the additions reflect our evolving dialogue about everything from gender issues to social media to healthcare.
The update, released Thursday, added three two-letter words to Scrabble’s lexicon, and while purists are up in arms about the addition of OK, the addition of the gender-neutral “ze” appears about as banal as the newly added exclamation “ew.”
As gender issues have dominated discussions of technology, film, and even Wall Street, Scrabble decided to expand its vocabulary for gender and sexuality, and it appears that it’s just keeping up with the times.
Among nearly 3,000 total additions, Collins Official Scrabble Words updated its gender lexicon with agender, cisgender, genderqueer, misgender, and transphobia. Searches for each term have stayed relatively static since the last rule change, with occasional spikes when a related case enters the news.
Internet culture has made its mark too, with bingeable, “dox” (disclosing others’ personal information as a form of harassment), Instagram, and overshare making the list. Over the past few years, bingeable has evolved from a compliment to a key factor viewers consider before watching a new show: If it isn’t conducive to bingeing several episodes (or a whole season) in a night, the show may not be a success.
Instagram also has become a behemoth with a billion monthly users, inspiring questions of privacy, becoming a tool for social critique, and encouraging art to be more “Instagrammable.”
The Scrabble lexicon also includes slang words such as “bae” (a term of endearment), “fleek” (something that’s perfectly executed), and “preggo” (pregnant), which have all fallen out of fashion since 2015. At least Scrabble is up on other trends, such as “anti-vaxer” (someone who is against vaccination) and “burkini” (a swimsuit covering the whole body). It also added the feminist terms “mansplaining” (a condescending explanation from a male to a female) and “manspreading” (what a dude does when he takes up too much space on the Metro, for example).
Many of Scrabble’s new additions have grown in our collective lexicon over the past few years, and most of them are probably here to stay. In 2015, though, Scrabble expanded its word bank with “ridic” (ridiculous) and “lolz” (a form of laughter), two words that have, thankfully, since tumbled out of popularity. So while many of Scrabble’s changes reflect growing trends, some of them may just as quickly fall out of fashion.
