trending words

9 new words in Collins Dictionary, May 2022

17th May 2022

Japanese comics and animated films have contributed four new entries to Collins English Dictionary online in its most recent update: jousei, seinen, shonen and shojo. Each of these genres features a different type of protagonist and is so designed to appeal to a particular audience. Some appealing food and cookery… Read More

Autumn equinox

22nd Sep 2020

‘The nights are fair drawing in’ is a trope about the weather that applies powerfully as you read this. The nights certainly are drawing in, and indeed, half past two in the afternoon on Tuesday 22 September this year marks the autumn equinox, when day and night are… Read More

‘Collop’ and ‘kenspeckle’ are among the most frequently looked-up words in August

15th Sep 2020

In our recent blogs about which words are most commonly looked for on the Collins dictionary website, we have tended to stress how the searches reflect the changes in society brought about by the various stages of the global Covid-19 epidemic. But what is interesting about the list of words… Read More

Anticipation and rain check are among the most frequently looked-up words in July

11th Aug 2020

Perhaps the most striking thing about the list of words that people have looked up in the Collins Dictionary in July is that it no longer contains a lot of words that were being looked up earlier in the year. Back in March and April, the list was dominated by… Read More

‘Meme’ and ‘pros and cons’ head list of words looked up in May

1st Jun 2020

One month ago, we were able to report that the word quarantine was being looked up on the Collins Dictionary website more often than any other word, which suggested just how much people’s lives were being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. A month on, however, things look… Read More

From lockdown to love: the words we are looking up

29th Apr 2020

Quarantine has emerged as the word that dictionary users are searching for most frequently during the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It accounted for about 1% of all searches on the CollinsDictionary.com website, and more than twice as many as the next most frequent search word, which turns… Read More

‘SYRIZA’, ‘#greensurge’, ‘kippers’, and ‘je suis Charlie’: trending words in January

6th Feb 2015

Unfortunately January gave us a tragic start to 2015 with a deplorable terrorist attack on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The magazine itself was obscure outside of France, but news of the attack generated such widespread sentiment that the hashtag #jesuischarlie immediately took over social media. Read More

‘Black Friday’, ‘Movember’, and ‘Philae’: trending words in November

2nd Dec 2014

Unfortunately the most googled word for the month of November has been “Kardashian” (not for the first or last time); but the less said about that the better. November is the beginning of the festive season, so it’s no surprise trending terms included Guy Fawkes Night/Bonfire Night and Black Friday,… Read More

iScotland v the rUK: trending words in September

24th Sep 2014

There’s an elephant in the room, and we all know what it is. Many things happened in September 2014, but the biggest event in the UK has to be the Scottish Independence Referendum, or the “indyref” as it became known on Twitter and beyond. Read More