Barbiecore? Bed rotting? Greedflation? Dictionary.com adds new 2024 words.

The way we talk is forever changing as technologies, pop culture and social issues develop – and dictionaries are trying to keep up.

Last year, Oxford Languages picked “rizz” as its word of the year; the Collins English Dictionary chose “AI”; Merriam-Webster went for “authentic.”

Dictionary.com on Tuesday announced it had added more than 1,700 new or updated definitions – and with a range from “girl dinner” to “Barbiecore,” “slow fashion” to “climate breakdown,” they reflect online trends, health and well-being, social issues, anxieties over climate change and the economy, and more.

“The intersection of language, learning and culture is boundless, and we recognize that words have the power to shape thoughts, bridge gaps and reflect our ever-evolving society,” John Kelly, vice president of editorial at Dictionary.com, said in a statement released Tuesday.

Grant Barrett, head of lexicography at Dictionary.com, said, “Our lexicography team captures the nuances of the living, breathing English language and shares English speakers’ creativity and ingenuity.”

Here are some of the new and updated entries on Dictionary.com’s list and their meanings:

-Barbiecore (noun): “An aesthetic or style featuring playful pink outfits, accessories, decor, etc., celebrating and modeled on the wardrobe of the Barbie doll.”

-Bed rotting (noun): “The practice of spending many hours in bed during the day, often with snacks or an electronic device, as a voluntary retreat from activity or stress.”

-Mid (adjective): “Mediocre, unimpressive or disappointing.”

-Girl dinner (noun): “An often attractively presented collection of snacks that involve little preparation, such as small quantities of cold cuts, cheese, fruit, cherry tomatoes, etc., deemed sufficient to constitute a meal for one.”

-Slow fashion (noun): “A movement among clothing producers and consumers that emphasizes eco-friendly, well-made clothing, maintenance and repair of garments to extend their life span, and a general reduction of one’s consumption of new clothing items.”

-Climate breakdown (noun): “The collective effects of harmful and potentially irreversible trends in climate, specifically those resulting from unchecked global warming.”

-Range anxiety (noun): “The apprehension or fear that an electric vehicle’s battery will run out of power before reaching one’s intended destination or a charging station.”

-Sound bath (noun): “An instance of sustained listening to the pleasant sounds emanating from a collection of singing bowls, bells, chimes, etc., used to aid in relaxation or meditation and believed to help restore physical and mental wellness.”

-Keto flu (noun): “A temporary feeling of illness or physical unease often experienced by those starting a ketogenic diet, characterized by fatigue, headaches, muscle soreness, etc., as the body adapts to using fat instead of carbohydrates for fuel.”

-Energy poverty (noun): “A lack of adequate access to safe, affordable sources of electricity or fuel for warmth, light, cooking, etc.”

-Greedflation (noun): “A rise in prices, rents or the like that is not due to market pressure or any other factor organic to the economy, but is caused by corporate executives or boards of directors, property owners, etc., solely to increase profits that are already healthy or excessive.”

Not all the words are based on new trends, and some may have wider meanings than listed here; Dictionary.com says it adds words when its experts decide that they are used widely and largely in the same way, are likely to stay, and are useful for a general audience.

Rachel Fletcher is an editor of the Cambridge Dictionary, which also added thousands of words last year.

That dictionary’s team is “always monitoring” language usage, she said during a Tuesday phone interview, and, in addition to adding new words, also spends time “identifying existing words which are being used in new ways.”

One example of that was Cambridge Dictionary’s 2023 word of the year, “hallucinate,” which refers to when artificial intelligence produces false information. (Dictionary.com named “hallucinate” its 2023 word of the year, too.)

That was “one of a large number of AI-related updates” made by the Cambridge Dictionary last year, Fletcher said. “We all recognized that everyone was talking about AI, and we felt that the word ‘hallucinate’ as a word really got to the heart of why they were talking about it.”

According to Tony Thorne, a lexicologist and language consultant at King’s College London, these types of lists have their own limitations, as they involve attempting to keep up with trends – which is in itself a “quite a difficult job.”

Dictionary.com says its own lexicographers “track a vast number of terms and topics, read a wide variety of writing and transcribed speech, and use corpora (big, searchable collections of texts) to see how terms are actually being used.”

Another issue is the inherent difficulty in trying to assess new forms of language, and the vast array of new terms that are being used, particularly online, Thorne said.

“It’s impossible for any linguist to say how important a new term is, how long it’s going to last, how significant it is,” he said. “So that’s why a lot of the new terms that they add are not new terms but have usually been around on social media, on TikTok, in conversations, for some time – sometimes years – before they’re accepted into the dictionary.”

There’s also a generational component when looking at new words or expressions, as much of the language “is baffling at first sight, and most people over 30 are entirely ignorant of it and ignore it, or they ridicule it if they see it.”

But language change is important – and inevitable, Thorne believes.

“I think new language is about crucial changes – social and cultural changes,” he said. “Even if we’re baby boomers, we should try to keep up, keep abreast of what’s happening.”