Delulu, Skibidi, and Tradwife Just Made It Into the Cambridge Dictionary

Colin McIntosh is the Cambridge Dictionary’s Lexical Program manager. Of the latest additions to the dictionary—which include words like Skibidi, Delulu, Tradwife, Inspo, Lewk, Broligarchy—he told the Associated Press that the dictionary only adds words that it thinks have “staying power.”

All words have staying power in that once they’re uttered, they exist forever. No matter how popular they were in their time, all words eventually get inducted into the lexicon like they’re seven-time All-Stars and three-time NBA champions who were a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame from their rookie seasons.

But not all words maintain relevance, which I think is what McIntosh and Big Dictionary are trying to pinpoint. By making a big show of these yearly announcements of inductees, they attempting to cement the now into forever, which doesn’t always pan out.

Sure, Gen Z kids will say Skibidi, but by Cambridge’s admission, it doesn’t have a meaning. Sometimes it means a good thing, other times it means a bad thing, but other times it means nothing at all because it’s more of a joke word used ironically in a way that feels like it’s commenting on its absurdity.

It’s a recursive loop of silliness encapsulated in a word. That in itself makes it a fascinating study in language, but to imply that Skibidi has “staying power” feels more like marketing jargon to populate a press release than an actual justification for including a silly word in a dictionary.

Cambridge Dictionary Just Added 6,000 New Words—Including Tradwife, Delulu, and Skibidi

Of course, Skibidi—a word I am so convinced will not have “staying power” that I am not going to add it to my Microsoft Word dictionary, leaving it forever underlined with a red squiggly if I ever type again after this article—is just one of the more than 6,000 new entries added to this year’s Cambridge Dictionary. That immediately lets you know that they have a relatively broad definition of “staying power.”  

Tradwife, which is just a Stepford wife for the Instagram/TikTok era, feels like it has actual staying power because that’s a modern-day conservative fetishized version of femininity. As long as conservatives are fantasizing about owning a stay-at-home wife who seems to be in a constant state of pregnancy, there will be a need for the term.

Other additions are odd in that they’re just modifications of words that are already in the dictionary, like Delulu. It has been circulating for years, but it wasn’t until it appeared in a few viral videos that it gained widespread attention. It’s just the word “delusional” for people who regularly say things like “vibe check” and “LET’S GOOOOOOOO!”

Your future boss probably won’t be dropping Delulu or Skibidi in a meeting unless they are particularly obnoxious. The words may not have much relevance even a year from now when the next round of words are inducted, but I think people tend to think of new words getting added to the dictionary as if it’s some kind of lofty accolade.

All it means is that a word was popular for at least a little bit. It’s not getting a bronze bust in the Hall of Fame. It simply means that now “delulu” gets wedged between “deluging” and “delusion.”