Language purists, brace yourselves. The Cambridge Dictionary just added more than 6,000 new words, and it looks more like your TikTok feed than an English class syllabus. Among the entries? “Skibidi,” “delulu,” “lewk” and “tradwife.”
Skibidi, for the uninitiated, comes from the Skibidi Toilet meme—a YouTube fever dream where human heads pop out of toilets and scream. The word itself is verbal glitter: meaningless, messy and stuck to everything. Its new official definition? Something “good” or “bad,” depending on context.
Delulu, shorthand for delusional, first spread through K-pop fandoms to describe parasocial crushes. Now it’s a mainstream label for any moment when optimism is louder than reality. Even Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dropped it in Parliament, proving no one is safe from TikTok slang.
Lewk isn’t just a look—it’s a Look. The kind of outfit that announces itself before you do, the curated vibe that says, “yes, I practiced this in the mirror.”
Tradwife—equal parts aesthetic and ideology—refers to women who embrace 1950s-style domestic roles as a countercultural brand. Think floral aprons, sourdough starters and intense Instagram captions about submission.
Predictably, not everyone’s thrilled. One critic on X (formerly Twitter) complained, “English is no longer a language, it’s a TikTok comment section.” Others say words like “skibidi” are “brainrot” that shouldn’t sit next to Shakespeare in the official record. But let’s be honest: Shakespeare invented words like “eyeball” and “swagger.” If he’d had Wi-Fi, you know he’d have slipped “delulu” into Romeo and Juliet.
Cambridge’s editors say the additions aren’t random. They track usage across online platforms and only add words that show staying power. Which means, like it or not, delulu isn’t going anywhere. Neither is tradwife. Neither, sadly, is skibidi.
