The editors at the Macquarie Dictionary have been hard at work collecting all the new lexical innovations flying through cyberspace and realspace, and we’ve put together our first tasting platter of Words to Watch for 2026.
It’s the start of a new year, and many of us will be working hard on our new year’s resolutions. Some people are looking to get out of the dating scene and are going boysober instead. Perhaps they’ll do it lowkenuinely and adopt a doodle instead. Others might be trying to work on their health, but beware of wellbeing washing and its empty promises. Or, they might be looking for a new hobby, where they might fall into conducting playbour.
boysober
This word describes the practice of abstaining from dating men, either permanently or just for a short time. Often as a response to tiresome or bad experiences in the dating world (and in particular on dating apps), people are calling it quits and enjoying time spent alone.
doodle
Labradoodle, goldendoodle, maltoodle, cockadoodle, bernedoodle, schnoodle, etc., etc., etc. Poodle crossbreeds have been all the rage for some time, but the name for this whole genre of dog (sometimes also oodle) is much newer.
wellbeing washing
This term refers to the practice of companies portraying themselves as actively supporting the wellbeing and mental health of employees when, in fact, little effort has been made to do so. It’s part of a larger trend of x-washing terms, where someone or something is seen to hide its problems by insincerely but openly supporting an alternative cause, such as pinkwashing, healthwashing or humane washing.
lowkenuinely
If you really mean something, but you’re trying not to make a huge deal out of it, you might be saying it lowkenuinely, a portmanteau of ‘lowkey’ and ‘genuinely’. Popular on social media such as Tiktok, this slightly oxymoronic construction might not stick around, but it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on.
playbour
Many games or similar online spaces find themselves benefiting from, if not relying on, unpaid user-generated content. A prominent example of this is video game modding communities – people who modify games, adding or modifying content to be shared with the wider player base. Proponents of this term suggest that this playbour blurs the line between a fun hobby activity and, where a company stands to benefit, unpaid labour.
