Your English teachers probably told you that if it’s not in the dictionary, it is not a word. She may have even brought out the dictionary and shown you that the word isn’t there – therefore it doesn’t exist. Stop falling for this trick.
Most dictionaries add 1000 to 4000 new words a year. Where do these words come from? They are made up, of course!
Shakespeare invented over 1700 words. Flipping through your dictionary, you’ll find words invented by authors (“freelance” from Sir Walter Scott in Ivanhoe), journalists (“beatnik” from the San Francisco Chronicle), TV personalities (“muppet” from Jim Henson), and even if the dictionary is new enough, your social media friends (“selfie” from Facebook).
There’s a specific term for when a new word is in the process of entering common, mainstream language. It’s called neologism.
The Wordox dictionary is also always updating and adding new words and we rely on you and other players to help do so. Players send us words all the time. We forward these words to our dictionary team. We also look at what words you play each month that aren’t in the dictionary. These go to the team to be reviewed too. If the dictionary team finds that a word meets the Wordox dictionary rules and appears in a modern and notable English dictionary, we add it to the Wordox dictionary.
Please remember, that the following words are not accepted by the game:
- Names/Proper nouns
- Abbreviations
- Acronyms
- Prefixes and suffixes
- Words which require a dash or an apostrophe
Have a word that you think should be added to the dictionary? Send it over and we'll consider adding it.