New words added to Oxford Dictionaries Online

Selfie, squee and omnishambles are amongst the new words in common usage that have made it into the quarterly update of Oxford Dictionaries Online
Other zeitgeisty words and phrases that have made it into the ODO's lexicon include:
• Buzzworthy
• Food baby
• Me time
• Bitcoin
• Street food
• Geek chic
• Double denim
• Dappy
• Vom
• Space tourism

Angus Stevenson of Oxford Dictionaries Online said: 'New words, senses, and phrases are added to Oxford Dictionaries Online when we have gathered enough independent evidence from a range of sources to be confident that they have widespread currency in English. Publishing online allows us to make the results of our research available more quickly than ever before. Each month, we add about 150 million words to our corpus database of English usage examples collected from sources around the world. We use this database to track and verify new and emerging words and senses on a daily basis. On average, we add approximately 1,000 new entries to Oxford Dictionaries Online every year, and this quarter’s update highlights some fascinating developments in the English language. Portmanteau words, or blends of words, such as phablet and jorts, remain popular, as do abbreviations, seen in new entries such as srsly and apols.'

For all the latest publishing news, subscribe to Writing Magazine or download our app

Register and sign up for our newsletter for late-breaking news, more competitions and exclusive content