The changes to English vocabulary are tracked and evaluated by the editors at the Oxford English Dictionary, a task that’s been going on since the 19th century. They look at words that have come into current use, words that have changed in meaning, and words that have fallen out of common conversation, and revise and update the OED four times a year. Right now they’re focusing on words that begin with the letter “S” and have added many new words and definitions, like supermom, superbad, supervillain, and superfund.. Take a look at these five official additions to the English language, and supersize your vocabulary today!

superglue (verb)
Cyanoacrylate is the scientific name for the fast-acting and very strong glue, or adhesive, that we’ve called “superglue” since the 1950s. Through the process of verbification (turning nouns into verbs) this word is now commonly used as both a noun and a verb. Example: “Emily was so intent on fixing the broken vase that she accidentally superglued her fingers to the tablecloth.”

supervolcano
In 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia exploded violently, throwing over 150 cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere, which altered weather patterns around the world for the next few years. There was so much ash that it lowered temperatures in the Northern hemisphere, causing crop failures in Europe, North America, and China, with snow falling even in June, and freezing temperatures throughout the summer. Mount Tambora is classified as a VEI-7 event – now imagine a VEI-8 event, the minimum size for a supervolcano eruption. New Zealand had one over 25,000 years ago that formed Lake Taupo, and scientists are studying the zone underneath Yellowstone, which has the potential for great destruction as well.

apatosaur
Volcanic eruptions may have helped cause enough climate change to lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs. One dinosaur’s name is becoming extinct as well: the brontosaur is now known more correctly as the apatosaur. These immensely large, long-necked and long-tailed vegetarians were four times the size of an elephant, and lived during the Jurassic Period, around 150 million years ago.

cybercast
Moving from the distant past to something that just a few decades ago seemed far in the distant future, web-based or downloadable programs like podcasts and other digital files are all classified under the term cybercast now. The prefix cyber- is often attached to words these days to add the meaning of “computer-based” or “robotic” (i.e. cyberspace, cyberpunk).

paywall
Here at The Vocabulary Builder’s Blog, we don’t charge a fee for access to these informative posts about English vocabulary, but many sites do require a payment or subscription in order to see full articles. Newspapers and magazines in particular have started charging for online viewing of their print publications, in part to make up for the reduced number of subscribers for the paper-based versions. You can break through the paywall easily, as long as you have a credit card.

You can find more new and updated words here.