The English language keeps changing and new English words are added to the dictionary.
There are lots of new English words you can learn to improve your understanding of English. Whether you are a native speaker or learning English as a second language, here is the list of new English words and their meaning will help you expand your vocabulary.
List of New English Words and their Meanings
- A-game
Meaning: One’s highest level of performance - Ambigue
Meaning: An ambiguous statement or expression. - Anglosphere
Meaning: English-speaking countries considered collectively (the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and Ireland). - Anti-suffragism
Meaning: Opposition to the extension of the right to vote in political elections to women; the political movement dedicated to this. - Aperol
Meaning: A proprietary name for an orange-coloured Italian aperitif flavoured with gentian, rhubarb, and a variety of herbs and roots. - April Fool’s
Meaning: April Fool’s Day (1 April), a day on which tricks or hoaxes are traditionally perpetrated - ar
Meaning: Used to express a range of emotions or responses, esp. affirmation, assent, or agreement. - Arr
Meaning: In humorous representations of the speech of pirates expressing approval, triumph, warning, etc. - Assault weapon
Meaning: A weapon designed for use in a large-scale military assault, esp. one used to attack a fortified or well-defended location. - Athleisure
Meaning: Casual, comfortable clothing or footwear designed to be suitable for both exercise and everyday wear - Aucklander
Meaning: A native or inhabitant of city or region of Auckland, New Zealand. - Awedde
Meaning: Overcome with anger, madness, or distress; insane, mentally disturbed. - Awe-inspiringly
Meaning: So impressively, spectacularly, or formidably as to arouse or inspire awe. - Awesomesauce
Meaning: Extremely good; excellent. - Awfulize
Meaning: To class as awful or terrible - Awfy
Meaning: Terrible, dreadful; remarkable or notable. - Awfy
Meaning: As simple intensive; very, exceedingly, extremely. - bidie-in
Meaning: A person who lives with his or her partner in a non-marital relationship; a cohabiting partner. - Bigsie
Meaning: Having an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance; arrogant, pretentious, conceited. - Bok
Meaning: A South African - Broigus
Meaning: Angry; irritated - Bukateria
Meaning: A roadside restaurant or street stall with a seating area, selling cooked food at low prices. - By-catch
Meaning: A catch of unwanted fish - cab sav
Meaning: Red wine made from the Cabernet Sauvignon grape - Cancel culture
Meaning: Call for the withdrawal of support from a public figure, usually in response to an accusation of a socially unacceptable action or comment. - chicken finger
Meaning: A narrow strip of chicken meat, esp. from the breast, coated in breadcrumbs or batter and deep-fried. - Chicken noodle soup
Meaning: A soup made with chicken and noodles, sometimes popularly regarded as a remedy for all ailments or valued for its restorative properties - Chickie
Meaning: Used as a term of endearment, especially for a child or woman - Chipmunky
Meaning: Resembling or characteristic of a chipmunk, typically with reference to a person having prominent cheeks or a perky, mischievous character. - Chuddies
Meaning: Short trousers, shorts. Now it usually means underwear; underpants. - Contact tracing
Meaning: The practice of identifying and monitoring individuals who may have had contact with an infectious person - Contactless
Meaning: Not involving contact (physical and technological meanings of contactless are being used much more frequently). - Coulrophobia
Meaning: Extreme or irrational fear of clowns - Covid-19
Meaning: An acute respiratory illness in humans caused by a coronavirus, which is capable of producing severe symptoms and death, esp. in the elderly - Deepfake
Meaning: An image or recording that has been convincingly altered to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said - De-extinction
Meaning: The (proposed or imagined) revival of an extinct species, typically by cloning or selective breeding. - Deleter
Meaning: A person who or thing which deletes something. - Delicense
Meaning: To deprive (a person, business, vehicle, etc.) of a license providing official permission to operate - Denialism
Meaning: The policy or stance of denying the existence or reality of something, esp. something which is supported by the majority of scientific evidence. - Denialist
Meaning: A person who denies the existence or reality of something, esp. something which is supported by the majority of scientific or historical evidence - Destigmatizing
Meaning: The action or process of removing the negative connotation or social stigma associated with something - dof
Meaning: Stupid, dim-witted; uninformed, clueless. - Droning
Meaning: The action of using a military drone or a similar commercially available device - E-bike
Meaning: An electric bike - eco-anxiety
Meaning: A state of stress caused by concern for the earth’s environment - enoughness
Meaning: The quality or fact of being enough; sufficiency, adequacy. - Epidemic curve
Meaning: A visual representation in the form of a graph or chart depicting the onset and progression of an outbreak of disease in a particular population - e-waste
Meaning: Worthless or inferior electronic text or content - fantoosh
Meaning: Fancy, showy, flashy; stylish, sophisticated; fashionable, exotic. Often used disparagingly, implying ostentation or pretentiousness. - forehead thermometer
Meaning: A thermometer that is placed on, passed over, or pointed at the forehead to measure a person’s body temperature. - franger
Meaning: A condom. - hair doughnut
Meaning: A doughnut-shaped sponge or similar material used as the support for a doughnut bun or similar updo - hench
Meaning: Of a person having a powerful, muscular physique; fit, strong. - hir
Meaning: Used as a gender-neutral possessive adjective (his/her/hir watch). In later use often corresponding to the subjective pronoun ze (he/she/ze wears a watch). - hygge
Meaning: A Danish word for a quality of cosiness that comes from doing simple things such as lighting candles, baking, or spending time at home with your family - influencer
Meaning: Someone who affects or changes the way that other people behave: - jerkweed
Meaning: An obnoxious, detestable, or stupid person (esp. a male). Often as a contemptuous form of address. - kvell
Meaning: Meaning to talk admiringly, enthusiastically, or proudly about something - kvetchy
Meaning: Given to or characterized by complaining or criticizing; ill-tempered, irritable. - LOL
Meaning: To laugh out loud; to be amused. - macaron
Meaning: A confection consisting of two small, round (usually colourful) biscuits with a meringue-like consistency - MacGyver
Meaning: To construct, fix, or modify (something) in an improvised or inventive way, typically by making use of whatever items are at hand - mama put
Meaning: A street vendor, typically a woman, selling cooked food at low prices from a handcart or stall. Also a street stall or roadside restaurant. - mentionitis
Meaning: A tendency towards repeatedly or habitually mentioning something (esp. the name of a person one is infatuated with), regardless of its relevance to the topic of conversation - microtarget
Meaning: To direct tailored advertisements, political messages, etc., at (people) based on detailed information about them - misgendering
Meaning: The action or fact of mistaking or misstating a person’s gender, esp. of addressing or referring to a transgender person in terms that do not reflect… - next tomorrow
Meaning: The day after tomorrow. - oat milk
Meaning: A milky liquid prepared from oats, used as a drink and in cooking - onboarding
Meaning: The action or process of integrating a new employee into an organisation, team, etc - patient zero
Meaning: Is defined as a person identified as the first to become infected with an illness or disease in an outbreak - pronoid
Meaning: A person who is convinced of the goodwill of others towards himself or herself - puggle
Meaning: A young or baby echidna or platypus. - puggle
Meaning: A dog cross-bred from a pug and a beagle; such dogs considered collectively as a breed. - quilling
Meaning: The action or practice of bribing electors in order to gain their votes, especially by providing free alcohol - rat tamer
Meaning: Colloquial meaning for a psychologist or psychiatrist - report
Meaning: An employee accountable to a particular manager - sadfishing
Meaning: Colloquial the practice adopted by some people, especially on social media, of exaggerating claims about their emotional problems to generate sympathy - sandboxing
Meaning: The restriction of a piece of software or code to a specific environment in a computer system in which it can be run securely - schnitty
Meaning: Colloquial a schnitzel, especially a chicken schnitzel - Segway
Meaning: A proprietary name for a two-wheeled motorised personal vehicle - self-isolate
Meaning: To isolate oneself from others deliberately; to undertake self-imposed isolation for a period of time - shero
Meaning: A female hero; a heroine. - single-use
Meaning: Designed to be used once and then disposed of or destroyed - skunked
Meaning: Drunk, intoxicated. In later use also under the influence of marijuana - slow-walk
Meaning: To delay or prevent the progress of (something) by acting in a deliberately slow manner - social distancing
Meaning: The action of practice of maintaining a specified physical distance from other people, or of limiting access to and contact between people - stepmonster
Meaning: Colloquial (humorous) (sometimes derogatory) a stepmother - tag rugby
Meaning: A non-contact, simplified form of rugby in which the removal of a tag attached to the ball carrier constitutes a tackle - theonomous
Meaning: Ruled, governed by, or subject to the authority of God - thirstry
Meaning: Showing a strong desire for attention, approval, or publicity. - title bar
Meaning: A horizontal bar at the top of a program window, used to display information such as the name of the program in use, the file or web page that is active. - topophilia
Meaning: Love of, or emotional connection to, a particular place or physical environment - truthiness
Meaning: A seemingly truthful quality not supported by facts or evidence - UFO
Meaning: UnFinished Object: In knitting, sewing, quilting, etc.: an unfinished piece of work - unfathom
Meaning: To come to understand (something mysterious, puzzling, or complicated); to solve (a mystery, etc.) - weak sauce
Meaning: That lacks power, substance, or credibility; pathetic, worthless; stupid. - WFH
Meaning: An abbreviation for “working from home.” - WIP
Meaning: Work in progress - zoodle
Meaning: A spiralised strand of zucchini, sometimes used as a substitute for pasta - Nomophobia
Meaning: Fear or worry at the idea of being without your phone or unable to use it. - Carbon sink
Meaning: A forest, ocean, or another natural environment’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Using new English words from 2020 in a sentence
