Collins Releases New Words for 2026 Including P(Doom) and Mogging

A recent dictionary release has left me wondering if I'm still conversant in today's tech lingo. The Scotland-based Collins dictionary has unveiled its list of new and notable words for 2026, featuring a mix of intriguing and somewhat alarming terms.

The list includes "p(doom), which refers to the probability of AI-caused catastrophe, raising questions about our reliance on artificial intelligence. Other additions include mogging, describing when someone outshines or upstages others, and friendslop, a low-budget video game played among friends. Also making an appearance is ghost jobs, jobs advertised with no intention to hire.

Some tech terms have stood the test of time, while others have faded into obscurity. Collins' Word of the Year for 2025 was vibe-coding, a conversational way to teach AI models without typing in code. In contrast, words like eshittification, meaning the gradual decline in quality due to profit-driven motives, haven't had the same level of staying power.

The American Dialect Society named eshittification its 2023 Word of the Year, highlighting a trend where quality suffers for financial gain. As I reflect on my own tech vocabulary, I'm reminded that some terms are here to stay, while others will eventually fall by the wayside.

The term selfie has become an integral part of modern language, referring to the act of taking a photo of oneself using any device equipped with a camera. Despite its widespread use, the word's origins are relatively recent, dating back to 2002 when it was first coined on an Australian internet chat forum.

The rise of content creation and online platforms has given birth to new terminology, including influencer, which describes individuals who share information and build a following on tech platforms. A related concept is parasocial, referring to the one-sided relationship between creators or influencers and their audience, where the latter may have a sense of connection with the former without reciprocation.

The Oxford Dictionary recognized the term podcast as its Word of the Year back in 2005, acknowledging the growing popularity of digital programs made available on-demand for streaming or download. Interestingly, this recognition came before the widespread adoption of smartphones and other portable devices that have further increased podcast accessibility.

The shift to remote work has also led to the proliferation of the term WFH (work from home), with a significant increase in Americans working from their own homes following the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a 2022 survey by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately one-quarter of Americans now engage in remote work.

The term unfriend" gained widespread use after being named Word of the Year by The New Oxford American Dictionary in 2009, largely due to its association with Facebook's social networking platform. However, the concept of ending a friendship has been present in language for much longer - it dates back to the 17th century when it carried a similar meaning.

The metaverse was once hailed as the future of the internet, but its fortunes have since taken a downturn. In 2021, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg invested heavily in virtual reality with his company's flagship app Horizon Worlds, which was touted as the key to unlocking this new digital landscape. However, just five years later, the metaverse's prospects appear to be waning.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were once a ubiquitous presence online, but their popularity has since waned significantly. These digital identifiers certify ownership of unique digital assets and were initially seen as a revolutionary concept. Even high-profile individuals such as former US President Donald Trump got in on the action by releasing NFTs.

The rise and fall of these terms highlights the transient nature of technological buzzwords, which can quickly go from being trendy to being relegated to the dustbin of history. As new technologies emerge, old ones fade into obscurity, leaving behind a trail of forgotten terminology that once captured the public's imagination.

The World Wide Web has become synonymous with the internet itself, often used interchangeably to describe the vast network of information available at our fingertips.

Defragmentation, or defrag for short, was once a common practice among computer users seeking to improve their system's performance by optimizing its hard drive. However, this task is no longer a necessary step in maintaining modern computers.

The evolution of digital communication has also led to the decline of certain terminology, such as emoticon, which originally referred to a specific type of text-based facial expression created using standard keyboard characters read sideways.