We are word geeks, of that, there is no doubt. We’re always reading a book, a tablet or the back of a cereal box. So imagine our glee when we discovered that 455 new words were added to the Merriam- Webster Dictionary this month. While we are not word snobs—there are a few on this list we’d rather never hear again.

• super-spreader : an event or location at which a significant number of people contract the same communicable disease — often used before another noun (as in a “super-spreader event”). The term super-spreader originally referred to a highly contagious person capable of passing on a disease to many others, and now can also refer to a single place or occasion where many others are infected.

• long COVID : a condition that is marked by the presence of symptoms (such as fatigue, cough, shortness of breath, headache, or brain fog) which persist for an extended period of time (such as weeks or months) following a person’s initial recovery from COVID-19 infection.

• vaccine passport : a physical or digital document providing proof of vaccination against one or more infectious diseases (such as COVID-19).
• TBH : an abbreviation for “to be honest.” TBH is frequently used in social media and text messaging.
• amirite : slang used in writing for “am I right” to represent or imitate the use of this phrase as a tag question in informal speech. An example: “English spelling is consistently inconsistent, amirite?”
• FTW : an abbreviation for “for the win” —used especially to express approval or support. In social media, FTW is often used to acknowledge a clever or funny response to a question or meme.
• deplatform : to remove and ban (a registered user) from a mass communication medium (such as a social networking or blogging website).

TBH dear readers, we are grateful that we’ve dodged super-spreader events and long covid. We’ve got our vaccine passports ready to go, FTW. Let’s just hope we aren’t de-platformed for being a little cheeky on a rainy Friday, amirite?

You can get the FULL LIST of new words here, courtesy of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.