‘Beast mode’ to ‘teraflop’: 10 words from the Merriam-Webster dictionary update

By LEANNE ITALIE
AP Lifestyles Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Merriam-Webster on Thursday announced a major overhaul of its popular “Collegiate” dictionary. The company has added more than 5,000 terms. Here’s a few of them with definitions — and some usage examples of our own.

Beast mode

DEFINITION: An extremely aggressive or energetic style or manner that someone adopts temporarily to overpower an opponent in a fight or competition.

EXAMPLE: He needed to go beast mode to crush the hot dog eating contest.

Dad bod

DEFINITION: A physique regarded as typical of an average father, especially one that is slightly overweight and not extremely muscular.

EXAMPLE: Harry rocked a dad bod even before the birth of his first child.

Dumbphone

DEFINITION: A cellphone that does not include advanced software features, such as email or an internet browser typically found on smartphones.

EXAMPLE: Want to really get lost? Destroy your smartphone, buy a burner dumbphone and head for the hills.

Farm-to-table

DEFINITION: Involving or advocating the direct sale and distribution of food from its point of origin to customers.

EXAMPLE: Farm-to-table, shmarm-to-table. Jack wants a Big Mac, not a pricey restaurant meal.

Hard pass

DEFINITION: A firm refusal or rejection of something, such as an offer.

EXAMPLE: The egg salad’s been in the sun for six hours. That’s a hard pass for me, Suzy.

Love language

DEFINITION: A person’s characteristic means of showing love or care for another.

EXAMPLE: Charlie’s dating profile says his love language is making mac and cheese. Could go either way, dude.

Petrichor

DEFINITION: A distinctive, earthy, usually pleasant odor that is associated with rainfall, especially when following a warm, dry period.

EXAMPLE: Molly refused to let the weather dampen her mood, especially as the petrichor reminded her of cozy rainy days past.

Rizz

DEFINITION: Romantic appeal or charm.

EXAMPLE: “You come here often?” Joe’s rizz was way, WAY off.

Side-eye

DEFINITION: A sidelong glance or gaze, especially when expressing scorn, suspicion, disapproval or veiled curiosity.

EXAMPLE: Anna side-eyes every man in white socks and sandals. That’s all.

Teraflop

DEFINITION: A unit of measure for the calculating speed of a computer equal to one trillion floating-point operations per second.

EXAMPLE: Cough up enough teraflops to let me bed rot with my PlayStation.