What’s new in the Oxford English Dictionary? June 2026 update

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a historical dictionary, containing over 500,000 entries and 3.5 million quotations to capture over 1,000 years of English.

Every quarter, we update the OED by revising versions of existing entries as well as defining new words and senses. These updates subtly broaden our understanding of the English language and its use around the world.

10 highlights from this quarter’s update 

1. We added more than 900 new words, phrases, and senses to the OED this quarter, including floordrobe, humblebrag, life hack, long game, and four-legged friend. How long have we been referring to domestic animals as four-legged friends? Our very earliest quotation—from 1778—actually refers to a donkey. Jennifer Hurd, New Words Editor, shares more about the words added this quarter.

2. Benjamin Franklin and an anecdote commonly attributed to him, Gordie Howe and his aggressive style of playing ice hockey, Iain Banks and his coming-of-age novel, a high-ranking Mughal official and his important role in the provinces of the empire… These are all people who have played a part in the story of some of the words featured, which includes new and revised entries from the Englishes of Australia, Canada, Scotland, and South Asia. Danica Salazar, Executive Editor, shares more.

3. Amongst the new entries is yeah nah, whose meaning is highly dependent on context for Australians and New Zealanders.

4. Meanwhile, out of station (1857) is a phrase that was used to describe ships that were not within a designated area or were out of communication range. Now, it is more often used in South Asian, East African, and West African English to talk about a person who is away from their usual location.

5. Au contraire is a great example of an expression that is new to the OED but not new to the language. English borrowed it from French, but it turns out that borrowing happened quite a long time ago: when we went digging, we found evidence in an English context all the way back to 1697!

6. We’ve finally revised one of the oldest words in English, and indeed, music—folk—proving an immensely productive source of new words, from folkster, folk metal, to folklorico. Graeme Diamond, Executive Editor, provides a whistlestop tour here.

7. We’ve recorded 150 senses relating to the word corona, meaning crown, wreath, garland, or circle. It’s used in a wide range of scientific terms, including some that describe scientific phenomena, and others that describe anatomical features in both humans and animals. Read more from OED Science Editor Catherine Bowden here.

8. We disentangle the pronunciation of crochet, which gets more complicated when it comes to derived forms crocheting, crocheter, and crocheted. Read more from Senior Editor Aliki Pantos and Executive Editor Catherine Sangster here.

9. We’ve linked around 500 more senses to the computing and information technology section of the Historical Thesaurus of the OED, both ancient (by computing standards at least) and modern. Read more from Mike Timpany, OED Science Editor.

10. And lastly, in some of our entries you can now use a tool called the AI Quotations Finder. This is an AI-powered tool, launching in beta, that can be used to provide more usage evidence of a particular OED You can find guidance at AI Quotations Finder.

Explore the update in more depth here.