Some new words make their way to dictionaries all the time, but many don’t. Yet, they do exist and you can hear them in spoken English and occasionally even come across them when reading.
Here’s our list of 10 neologisms that you’re unlikely to find in a dictionary for now. But who knows, maybe they’ll be added to one sooner than we think.
1. Doom-scrolling – the tendency to continue to scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening, or depressing
Example: It’s all too easy to get sucked into public drama, online and offline. Trust that if something important happens, you’ll know about it. Otherwise, save your energy and spend your time on something more worthwhile than doom-scrolling.
2. Doom-surfing – see doom-scrolling
Example: I’ve been doing a lot of doom-surfing recently, reading mostly about the coronavirus.
3. Polywork – the activity of having several different jobs at the same time for reasons other than necessity, mostly because a polyworker desires multiple careers
Example: Polywork allows you to explore your interests or bolster one skill set with different jobs that satisfy different nuances of a trade.
4. Finfluencer – someone who gives financial advice on social media
Example: Finfluencers have blossomed on Instagram and TikTok.
5. Microwedding – a small wedding with 20 guests or less (according to some sources, with up to 50 guests) (related: “Getting Married: Idioms & More”
Example: A micro wedding features time-honored traditions that make a wedding but on a much smaller scale.
6. Blursday – difficulty in determining what day of the week it is
Example: 2020 was a year of blursdays for many.
7. Workation – a vacation that combines business with leisure
Example: The concept of the workation has evolved in response to new freedoms that many of us have been awarded at work.
8. Volunteercation – a vacation spent doing volunteer work
Example: UK-based volunteercations are on the rise.
9. Ask gap – the difference in the salary earned by people who ask for (and receive) a higher amount and those who do not
Example: Women and minorities ask for – and are offered – lower salaries than white men. It’s a problem called the ‘ask gap’ – and fixing it can pay major dividends.
10. Pivot space – a multifunctional area of an office
Example: Pivot spaces can be used to distribute staff around the office to maintain physical distancing and adapt accordingly as workplace guidelines change.
Practice
Click the link here and match the words/phrases to the pictures related to their meaning.
Click the link here and choose the right word/phrase to complete the sentences.
If you are interested in newly coined words, check out our next post. Stay safe and thank you for reading! 😉
Enguroo Online English School 
One thought on “10 Words You Probably Don’t Know (& How to Use Them)”