These 3 Popular Gen Z Terms Have Been Added To The Cambridge Dictionary

If you thought you’d narrowly avoided the fate of saying “how do you do, fellow kids?” a la 30 Rock, the new additions to the Cambridge Dictionary might have you feeling every your age right down to the day.

Around 3,200 new words have been added to the Cambridge Dictionary this year and while that fact alone is unfathomable, three of those words are so deliciously Gen Z that we’re obsessed (and feeling ancient, tbh.)

Additionally, Wendalyn Nichols, Cambridge Dictionary’s publishing manager, said that while language is constantly evolving, these new additions have “staying power”.

The Gen Z terms added to Cambridge Dictionary

The Ick

After the past year, this entry is not all that surprising. The term was originally popularised by Love Island but has since become part of our everyday lexicon with everything from bad dates to bad logos giving us “the ick”.

The dictionary gives an example usage of “the ick” as: “I used to like Kevin, but seeing him in that suit gave me the ick.”

Boop

If you spent your lockdown days glued to Schitt’s Creek and falling in love with character Alexis Rose, “boop” has probably been in your vocabulary for a while now. The dictionary describes it as: “a gentle hit or touch on the nose or head as a joke or to indicate affection.”

Boop.

Chef’s Kiss

That TV finale was chef’s kiss. That sassy-but-classy response to your ex? Chef’s kiss!

The dictionary describes this as a term used to describe something deemed perfect or excellent.

It also means the movement “in which you put your fingers and thumb together, kiss them, then pull your hand away from your lips”.

Mwah, mwah, that definition is CHEF’S KISS.

Hallucinate gained new meaning in 2023

At the end of 2023 Cambridge Dictionary announced that “hallucinate” was its word of the year, as it had gained a new meaning since the development of artificial intelligence.

The BBC explained: “While the traditional definition is ‘to seem to see, hear, feel, or smell something that does not exist’, it now includes ‘when an artificial intelligence (AI) hallucinates, it produces false information’”