Word of the Year 2026: Every Dictionary's Pick

As of 5 November 2026, two major English dictionaries have named a 2026 Word of the Year. Dictionary.com chose maxxing on 26 October, and Collins chose mogging on 3 November. Oxford, Cambridge, Merriam-Webster, Macquarie, The Economist, the American Dialect Society and the Australian National Dictionary Centre have not announced yet. Going by last year's dates, most of them should land between mid-November and mid-December, with the American Dialect Society and probably the Australian centre following in January 2027.

One more 2026 winner is worth knowing even though it is not an English dictionary: Germany's Youth Word of the Year, voted by 11- to 20-year-olds, went to the English loanword ragebait on 10 October.

Below: the full tracker, what each winner actually means, who made the shortlists, a one-page cheat sheet, and the 2025 and 2024 winners so you can see where the trend is heading.

The 2026 tracker at a glance

The right-hand column comes from each publisher's own 2025 announcement or news coverage of it. It is a guide to timing, not a promise. When a new pick lands, it goes into this table and gets its own section below.

Dictionary.com 2026: maxxing

Dictionary.com picked maxxing, which it defines as pursuing an activity to the fullest or optimizing some aspect of your life. It is short for "maximizing." It can stand alone ("I'm maxxing this weekend"), but mostly it gets glued onto the end of another word: looksmaxxing, sleepmaxxing, proteinmaxxing, cozymaxxing. Dictionary.com's own list also includes tokenmaxxing, for using as much AI at work as possible, and nonnamaxxing, for living by an Italian grandmother's habits.

Why this word: Dictionary.com said searches for looksmaxxing "skyrocketed" in early 2026 as the media picked up the trend, and that searches for plain maxxing kept rising afterward with no sign of dropping off. CBS News reported that use of looksmaxxing rose more than 1,000% since the start of the year in the media Dictionary.com analyzed. Steve Johnson, the company's director of lexicography, told CBS the word "is so accessible."

The roots go back further than TikTok. Dictionary.com found looksmaxxing in archived internet data from 2015, with moneymaxxing, statusmaxxing and surgerymaxxing in circulation by 2021. CBS adds that the optimizing sense of "max" runs back through the "min-maxing" of Dungeons & Dragons players to "mini-max" in 1940s game theory. There is already a backlash built into the suffix: normalmaxxing and nothingmaxxing are used for stepping off the self-optimization treadmill.

The four finalists:

• Affordability: whether ordinary goods and services are within reach, a central issue ahead of the US midterms.
• Data center: the huge facilities that store and process data, now a local fight in many places because AI centers need so much land, power and cooling.
• Odyssey: a long, eventful journey, boosted by Christopher Nolan's 2026 film The Odyssey.
• Unc: a clipping of "uncle" from African American Vernacular English, now used by Gen Z and Gen Alpha to tease someone for being uncool or out of touch, much like "OK boomer."

Dictionary.com's previous five winners: 67 (2025), demure (2024), hallucinate (2023), woman (2022) and allyship (2021).

What parents should know about maxxing

Most maxxing is harmless self-improvement talk about sleep, study or a skincare routine. The word's roots are in looksmaxxing forums, though, and the extreme end of that world involves crash diets, unregulated supplements and harsh ratings of faces and bodies. If a teenager says they are looksmaxxing, ask what that looks like for them before deciding whether it is a haircut or a worry. The looksmaxxing page separates the gentle version from the risky one.

Collins 2026: mogging

Collins named mogging its Word of the Year on 3 November 2026, defining it as outperforming or outshining someone or something, in a way that can make the other person look worse in appearance, confidence or status. In everyday use it is mostly a joke. A short guy stands next to a tall friend in a photo and the comments say he got mogged.

The Associated Press reported that young people use it "in a playful and ironic way when someone is upstaged," and that usage rose 210% in 2026 across the 27-billion-word Collins database, which includes social media. Alex Beecroft, Collins's managing director, said Gen Z and Gen Alpha had turned the word into humorous slang.

The origin is less cute. Collins believes mogging is a shortening of AMOG, "alpha male of the group," says it was a noun in bodybuilding culture by around 2016 for the most physically dominant man in the gym, and describes how it spread as a verb through the manosphere before teenagers turned it into teasing. ABC News in Australia reported that researchers have raised concerns about what mogging talk does to young men in particular. The mogging page covers spin-offs like framemog and where the word tips into bullying.

The rest of the Collins 2026 shortlist:

If you work in an office, ghost job is the one you will hear most. Our guide to new workplace terms covers it alongside job hugging and quiet cracking.

Germany's Youth Word of the Year 2026: Ragebait

The publisher Langenscheidt runs a youth vote every year, and since 2020 young people aged 11 to 20 have chosen the winner. On 10 October 2026, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Ragebait won with 36.5% of the final vote, narrowly ahead of Peak (33.8%) and Crashout (29.7%), according to The Local Germany. It was the first time since 2023 that all three finalists were English words.

German teens use ragebait the same way English speakers use rage bait: content made to provoke anger so people comment and share. Crashout is the German spelling of our crash out, a sudden emotional blow-up. Both words came to German through English-language social media, which is why this vote belongs on an English tracker. It also shows how long a word can travel: Oxford named rage bait its 2025 Word of the Year, and ten months later German teenagers voted it theirs.

Still to come: Oxford, Cambridge, Merriam-Webster and the rest

None of these had announced a 2026 pick as of 5 November 2026. Here is how each one chooses and what it picked last time.

Macquarie Dictionary

Australia's Macquarie announces two winners, a Committee's Choice and a People's Choice, after a public vote that stays open for one week. Its 6 October 2026 "Words to Watch" wrap-up previewed the longlist and said voting "opens soon," without a date. Words it tracked through the year include lowkenuinely, boysober, AI psychosis, human-in-the-loop, digital asbestos, Gen Z stares, hydration breaks, vagueposting and quishing (phishing by QR code). Macquarie announced its 2025 winners on 24 November 2025. For 2025 both prizes went to AI slop; the committee's honourable mentions were clanker and medical misogyny, and the public's were medical misogyny and attention economy.

Cambridge Dictionary

Cambridge leans on what people look up on its website. Its 2025 choice, announced on 18 November 2025, was parasocial, the one-sided bond people form with celebrities, influencers and, increasingly, AI chatbots. Its 2024 choice was manifest.

Oxford

Oxford University Press publishes a shortlist, opens a short public vote, and then its lexicographers make the final call using the votes and their language data. In 2025 the shortlist went up on 24 November, voting closed on 27 November after more than 30,000 people took part, and rage bait won on 1 December. The other two candidates were aura farming and biohack. Oxford said rage bait had tripled in usage over the previous 12 months. Before that it chose brain rot (2024) and rizz (2023).

Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster bases its pick largely on lookup data and publishes a list of other notable words alongside the winner. On 15 December 2025 it chose slop, defined as "digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence." Its other words of note included gerrymander, touch grass, performative, tariff, six seven and conclave. Its 2024 pick was polarization.

American Dialect Society and the Australian National Dictionary Centre

The American Dialect Society votes at a live meeting of linguists after the year ends. It named slop its 2025 word on 9 January 2026, and rawdog ("to undertake without usual protection, preparation, or comfort") its 2024 word on 10 January 2025. The Australian National Dictionary Centre at ANU has moved around: it named Colesworth on 20 November 2024, but waited until 28 January 2026 to name social media ban for 2025, after Australia's rules restricting under-16s on social media.

2025 Words of the Year, for comparison

The 2025 season had one clear theme: AI-made junk content. Slop, or AI slop, took four separate titles.

Dictionary.com's 2025 announcement admitted that 67's most defining feature is that it is "impossible to define." Its shortlist that year included aura farming, clanker, Gen Z stare, agentic, broligarchy, tradwife, kiss cam, overtourism, tariff and the dynamite emoji used for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

The Collins 2025 shortlist also leaned young: aura farming, clanker, glaze (see glazing), taskmasking, broligarchy, biohacking, HENRY, micro-retirement and coolcation.

Oxford also ran a children's version. In January 2026, The Big Issue reported that nearly 5,000 UK children aged 6 to 14 chose peace as their word of the year, ahead of AI and resilience, and six-seven as their slang word of the year, ahead of aura and delulu.

2024 Words of the Year

Collins's 2024 shortlist reads like a preview of later slang guides: delulu, brainrot, romantasy, looksmaxxing, yapping, rawdogging, anti-tourism and supermajority. Macquarie's 2024 shortlist included looksmaxxing, sigma and skibidi, and brainrot was runner-up in its public vote. Dictionary.com's 2024 finalists were brainrot, brat, extreme weather, Midwest nice and weird.

Looksmaxxing made two 2024 shortlists and won nothing. Two years later its suffix won Dictionary.com outright.

What the 2026 picks have in common

Both English winners so far come out of the same corner of the internet. Collins ties mogging to the manosphere, and Dictionary.com links the rise of maxxing to looksmaxxing searches. Both words started in communities obsessed with ranking men's looks and status. Both have since been softened by teenagers into jokes about haircuts, sleep schedules and who looks taller in a photo.

That is a familiar path for slang. Sigma made the same move from manosphere jargon to ironic playground praise. Words also travel along other routes. Unc, a Dictionary.com finalist, comes from African American Vernacular English, where it was a respectful word for an older man long before it became a tease. Crashout, a German finalist, also comes from African American English, by way of rap. Our guide to where slang comes from traces those routes.

The other running theme is AI. In 2025 it won almost everything through slop. In 2026 it keeps showing up on shortlists, with data center at Dictionary.com, P(doom) at Collins, and AI psychosis and human-in-the-loop on Macquarie's watch list, but it has not taken a top spot yet. Whether Oxford, Cambridge or Merriam-Webster hand it one is the main open question of the season.

Printable cheat sheet: the 2026 words in one line each

How to reply when someone uses the 2026 words

These are not dictionary entries, just realistic ways people answer.

When a friend says "he mogged you in that photo":

• "He's six inches taller. That's not mogging, that's geometry."
• "Crop me out and post it again."
• "Fair. Next time I'm standing on the step."

When your teenager says they are "sleepmaxxing" or "looksmaxxing":

• "Sleepmaxxing I fully support. What time is lights out?"
• "What does looksmaxxing mean for you, skincare and the gym, or something stricter?"
• "Show me who you're getting the tips from. I'm curious, not banning anything."

When someone at work calls you "unc":

• "Unc has been here since before the coffee machine. Respect the lore."
• "I'll take unc if it comes with a pension."
• "Fine, but unc still knows where the good stapler is."

When a post is obvious ragebait:

• "Not giving this one a comment. That's what it wants."
• "Muted. My blood pressure thanks me."

When a coworker mentions a "ghost job":

• "Has the role been reposted a few times? Might be one."
• "Worth messaging the hiring manager directly before you put hours into the application."

If you want to see how many of these you already knew, the slang age quiz is a quick test.

Key takeaways

• As of 5 November 2026, only Dictionary.com (maxxing) and Collins (mogging) among the major English dictionaries have named a 2026 Word of the Year. Germany's youth vote picked Ragebait.
• Cambridge, Macquarie, Oxford, The Economist and Merriam-Webster announced between 18 November and 15 December last year, so expect their 2026 picks in that window. The American Dialect Society votes in January.
• Both English winners came out of looksmaxxing and manosphere slang and have since been turned into mostly playful teen talk.
• 2025 was the year of slop: Merriam-Webster, The Economist and the American Dialect Society chose slop, and Macquarie chose AI slop.
• Unc, a Dictionary.com 2026 finalist, and crashout, a German finalist, both come from African American English.

FAQ

What is the Word of the Year 2026?

There is no single one. Each dictionary picks its own. So far Dictionary.com chose maxxing and Collins chose mogging. Oxford, Cambridge, Merriam-Webster and Macquarie had not announced as of 5 November 2026.

When will Oxford announce its 2026 Word of the Year?

Oxford has not given a date. Last year it published a three-word shortlist on 24 November and named the winner on 1 December 2025, after a three-day public vote. Its 2024 and 2023 winners were also announced in early December.

When does Merriam-Webster announce its Word of the Year?

Its 2025 word, slop, was announced on 15 December 2025, and its 2024 word, polarization, also came in December. Merriam-Webster had not announced a 2026 word as of 5 November 2026.

Can I vote for Word of the Year?

For some of them. Oxford runs a short public vote on its shortlist before its experts decide. Macquarie gives the public its own People's Choice award, with voting open for one week. Germany's Jugendwort is decided entirely by a youth vote. Collins, Dictionary.com, Cambridge and Merriam-Webster choose in-house.

Is mogging a bad word?

It is not a swear word. It can be unkind, because it compares people's looks or status, and it came out of manosphere forums. Between friends it is usually a joke about being upstaged. Aimed at someone's face or body, it works as an insult.

What was the 2025 Word of the Year?

It depends on the dictionary: 67 (Dictionary.com), vibe coding (Collins), parasocial (Cambridge), AI slop (Macquarie), rage bait (Oxford) and slop (Merriam-Webster, The Economist and the American Dialect Society).