macquarie

Another long and strange year, capped off by the announcement of the Word of the Year, strollout. And of course, all year, our series on new words to watch got a lot of support and a little criticism for some of the words included, however we should note these are selected from words submitted by the … Read more

At the Macquarie Dictionary we like to spread good cheer. To celebrate our good mood, we rummaged around the Dictionary database in search of words and phrases that express that happiness. That’s why this week’s word of the week is happy little vegemite. 🙂 🙂 🙂  A happy little Vegemite is a person in a good mood, as … Read more

There are few more inspiring sights than a group of sharply dressed young blokes loitering on the street corner with absolutely no ill intentions, and so, inspired by the upstanding behaviour of such young men we selected lair as this week’s Word of the Week. A lair isn’t just a supervillain’s hideout, it’s also a flashily dressed young man … Read more

Slow day at the office? Is that report taking three times longer than it should because you keep flicking between Instagram and your spreadsheet? Making that easy, five-minute job look like a marathon effort? If so, you are farnarkling. To farnarkle is to indulge in an activity which creates an appearance of productivity but which has no substance … Read more

For our first Word of the Week after an extended break, we thought we would step outside ourselves to profile Aussie slang that is popular overseas. The words selected often represent stereotypical, sometimes out of date versions of Australia. Others are timeless and infamous in equal measure. Brace yourself for the cultural cringe.   Out first … Read more

We took a short break for our annual Word of the Year competition, but we’re back with five new words to watch. Perhaps some of them will be contenders for Word of the Year 2022?  First up, a pair of words that have to do with appearances. A possible new addition to the set cottagecore, … Read more

The Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year voting is open now. The below shortlist was chosen from the 15 categories under consideration for Word of the Year 2021. You can review the words and definitions below. Find out which word became the Word of the Year 2021 here. Access a pdf of the shortlist here. … Read more

The official Word of the Year 2021 for Macquarie Dictionary is strollout. Last year, we had two winners to allow for the overwhelming presence of COVID-19 in our lives. These words were doomscrolling and rona. While Macquarie Dictionary takes into consideration only the words that were introduced to the dictionary in the year in question, … Read more

The Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year has a shortlist consisting of one word from each of our fifteen (sixteen including COVID-19) categories. While the titles are sometimes self-explanatory, our editors have expanded on the category titles to give us a better understanding of what each group encapsulates. Agriculture – related to farming practices, equipment and … Read more