How does a word qualify to be in the Dictionary?
“How does a word get into the dictionary?” That’s one of the questions Merriam-Webster editors are most often asked. The answer is simple: people need to use it. That answer actually oversimplifies things a bit, but in general, a word must appear regularly in professionally published sources, such as books, magazines, and newspapers, before it can be considered as a candidate to enter the dictionary. Here is some more information about how dictionary editors choose which words to add. To decide which words to include in the dictionary and to determine what they mean, Merriam-Webster editors study the language to determine which words people use most often and how they use them. Each day most Merriam-Webster editors devote an hour or two to reading books, newspapers, magazines, electronic publications — in fact a cross-section of all kinds of published materials; in our office this activity is called “reading and marking.” The editors are looking for new words, new meanings of existing
