What do smackdowns, crunk, and microgreen have in common?

These words, and many others, all are new additions to the latest edition of the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. I knew some of the newly recognized words; IED, RPG, Bollywood, speed dating, and sudoku, but others were totally unfamiliar. What is nocebo, flexcuff and viewshed?

English has one of the largest lexicon of all languages. According to The Story of English by Robert McCrum, “It is arguably the richest in vocabulary. The compendious Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words; and a further half million technical and scientific terms remain uncataloged. According to traditional estimates, neighboring German has a vocabulary of about 185,000 words and French fewer than 100,000, including such Franglais as le snacque-barre and le hit-parade”.

It appears that English will continue to expand at a rapid rate; there are almost 100 newly accepted words this year. We will all have to develop a ginormous vocabulary.