Dictionaries evolve with the times just like everything else. Every year, executives at Merriam Webster review potential new words for inclusion in the latest edition of their unabridged dictionary. Here are some recent considerations:
| chick flick (n) - a motion picture intended to appeal especially to women DEFCON (n) - any of five levels of U.S. military defense readiness ranked according to the perceived threat to national security [defense condition] mouse potato (n) - a person who spends a great deal of time using a computer slang [after couch potato] peeps (n plural) - human beings making up a group or assembly or linked by a common interest slang ringtone (n) - the sound made by a cell phone to signal an incoming call soul patch (n) - a small growth of beard under a man's lower lip spyware (n) - software that is installed in a computer without the user's knowledge and that transmits information about the user's computer activities over the Internet |
| It won't be long before your grandmother tells you she's having her peeps over to watch a chick flick. We're turning back the clock and giving you the definitions of ten Merriam Webster entries from 1905. Can you tell us the word? |  |