15 Words the Dictionary Forgot to Update
Language evolves constantly, yet dictionaries often lag behind our everyday speech. Words take on new meanings, adapt to technological advances, and respond to cultural shifts long before they’re officially recognized.
The dictionaries we rely on sometimes seem frozen in time while our vocabulary races ahead. Here is a list of 15 common words whose dictionary definitions haven’t caught up with how we actually use them today.
Literally
Once meaning ‘in a literal sense,’ this word has transformed into its own opposite. Today, people use it as an intensifier to emphasize statements that are figuratively true.
When someone says, ‘I literally died laughing,’ dictionaries might still insist they’ve passed away, while everyone else understands it as extreme amusement. This semantic shift has been happening since the 1700s, with authors like Jane Austen and Mark Twain using ‘literally’ figuratively, yet many dictionaries still present this usage as incorrect or informal despite its prevalence in everyday speech.
The word has become a linguistic battlefield where prescriptivists and descriptivists wage an ongoing war over proper usage.
Friend
Traditional dictionaries define a friend as someone you know well and regard with affection. Social media has completely transformed this concept, turning ‘friend’ into a verb and extending its meaning to include people we’ve never met in person.
Your hundreds of Facebook friends would baffle dictionary editors from just 20 years ago. The quantification of friendship through follower counts and connection numbers has fundamentally altered our perception of this relationship.
We now distinguish between ‘real-life friends’ and ‘online friends,’ creating subcategories that traditional definitions never anticipated. The emotional weight of friendship has been diluted as the word expanded to encompass increasingly casual connections.
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Cloud
Formerly just those fluffy white things in the sky or a state of confusion, ‘cloud’ now primarily refers to remote data storage for most tech users. The meteorological definition still exists, but when most people talk about saving something to the cloud, they’re not throwing their documents into the atmosphere.
This digital meaning has overshadowed the original in everyday conversation. The transformation began in the early 2000s with the rise of distributed computing, but exploded into mainstream usage around 2010 when services like iCloud and Google Drive became household names.
The abstractness of the concept—data existing somewhere unseen yet accessible—makes the metaphorical cloud particularly apt, yet dictionaries struggle to capture this nuanced technological meaning without technical jargon.
Viral
Once strictly referring to something caused by a virus, this word now dominates conversations about internet content. Videos, memes, and social media posts ‘go viral’ without causing any actual illness.
The medical community might still use the original definition, but for most of us, viral success has nothing to do with microbiology. This linguistic shift happened remarkably quickly during the early YouTube era around 2005-2010, as content began spreading through social networks with unprecedented speed.
The comparison to how viruses replicate and spread through a population is surprisingly accurate—both phenomena involve exponential growth and person-to-person transmission. Marketing departments now deliberately create campaigns designed to ‘go viral,’ institutionalizing a meaning many dictionaries still treat as slang.
Browse
Traditionally meaning to casually look through something, ‘browse’ now almost exclusively refers to internet activity. When someone mentions browsing, they’re likely not flipping through books at a store but clicking through websites.
The digital meaning has all but replaced the physical one in common usage. The shift began with the early web browser Netscape Navigator, whose very name reinforced the metaphor of internet exploration.
The browsing experience has evolved dramatically from the early days of following hyperlinks to today’s infinite scrolling and algorithm-curated content, yet the word remains the same. Even the physical act of browsing stores has been influenced by digital patterns—many shoppers now scan products quickly, mimicking the rapid consumption of online content.
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Wall
For centuries, a wall was simply a vertical structure dividing spaces. Now it commonly refers to a social media profile section where friends leave messages. ‘I wrote on her wall’ sounds bizarre to dictionary purists but makes perfect sense to anyone who’s used Facebook.
The digital wall has become as real to us as physical ones. Facebook introduced this terminology in 2004, deliberately choosing an architectural metaphor to make virtual space feel more concrete. The concept of writing on someone’s wall predates social media in the form of graffiti and message boards, but the digital version normalized what would otherwise be vandalism.
Follow
This word once meant to go behind someone physically or to adhere to instructions. Social media has transformed it into a way of subscribing to someone’s content without any physical movement involved.
Following celebrities doesn’t make you a stalker anymore—it’s a mainstream, accepted practice encouraged by platforms across the internet. Twitter (now X) popularized this usage when it launched in 2006, deliberately avoiding Facebook’s symmetrical ‘friendship’ model in favor of unidirectional connections.
The follow relationship creates complex social hierarchies based on follower counts, with high numbers conferring status and influence.
Stream
Previously defined as a small, flowing body of water, ‘stream’ now commonly describes watching video content over the internet. ‘What are you streaming tonight?’ has nothing to do with rivers or creeks for most people.
The water-based definition feels almost secondary to the entertainment meaning in everyday conversation. The metaphor is technically apt—data flows continuously from servers to your device much like water in a stream—but most users never think about this connection.
The rise of services like Netflix around 2010 cemented this usage, which has expanded to include music (Spotify), gaming (Twitch), and live events.
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Like
Once simply expressing preference or similarity, ‘like’ has become a quantifiable form of social approval. People now chase likes as validation for their online presence.
This tiny word carries enormous social weight that dictionary definitions haven’t fully captured. The transformation from subjective feeling to countable metric represents a fundamental shift.
Facebook introduced the Like button in 2009, turning an abstract concept into a measurable commodity. The psychological impact has been profound, with studies showing that likes trigger dopamine responses similar to other rewards.
Businesses track ‘like’ metrics to measure campaign success, and algorithms use them to determine content distribution, giving this simple word enormous economic significance.
Ghost
Traditionally the spirit of a dead person, ‘ghost’ has evolved into a verb describing the act of suddenly cutting off all communication with someone. Being ‘ghosted’ has nothing supernatural about it—just the very human experience of unexpected silence.
The emotional impact of this modern meaning gives the word new depth beyond spectral apparitions. Dating apps normalized this behavior by making connections feel less consequential and providing an endless supply of alternatives.
Cancel
Previously meaning to annul or invalidate something scheduled, ‘cancel’ now refers to the cultural practice of withdrawing support from public figures after controversial behavior. Getting ‘canceled’ goes far beyond a simple appointment termination.
It represents a complex social phenomenon of accountability and consequence that dictionaries haven’t fully integrated. The concept emerged from Black Twitter around 2015 as a form of collective boycott, then expanded into mainstream usage during the #MeToo movement.
The severity of cancellation exists on a spectrum from temporary controversy to career-ending exile, but dictionaries rarely capture these nuances. Critics and defenders of cancel culture use the same word to describe vastly different scenarios, from justified consequences to mob mentality, making a precise definition particularly challenging.
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Toxic
Once primarily describing poisonous substances, ‘toxic’ now commonly describes unhealthy relationships, workplace environments, and behavioral patterns. This metaphorical extension has become so dominant that the psychological meaning may outweigh the chemical one in everyday usage.
The emotional poison the word now describes feels just as dangerous as physical toxins. The psychological usage gained momentum in the 1990s with discussions of ‘toxic parents’ and ‘toxic relationships,’ but exploded in the 2010s alongside growing mental health awareness.
Catfish
Formerly just an aquatic creature, this noun transformed into a verb describing someone who creates a false online identity to deceive others. The fish meaning has been completely overtaken in common usage.
When someone mentions being ‘catfished,’ nobody pictures underwater creatures—they understand the painful experience of online deception. This definition emerged from the 2010 documentary ‘Catfish,’ which followed a man discovering his online girlfriend wasn’t who she claimed to be.
Troll
Originally a mythical creature living under bridges, ‘troll’ now primarily describes someone who posts inflammatory content online to provoke reactions. This meaning has so dominated that the folkloric creature seems almost secondary.
The behavior has become so common that the modern definition feels more real than the mythological one. Internet trolling began in the 1990s on early message boards and Usenet groups, with the term possibly derived from the fishing technique of trolling (dragging bait through water).
Different categories of trolling have emerged—from relatively harmless pranks to coordinated harassment campaigns—creating subcategories that dictionaries rarely distinguish.
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Swipe
Once simply describing a quick brushing motion, ‘swipe’ now carries romantic implications thanks to dating apps. Swiping right or left determines potential matches, giving this simple movement enormous social significance.
The physical action remains the same, but the cultural weight it carries has expanded dramatically beyond what dictionaries acknowledge. Tinder popularized the gesture when it launched in 2012, transforming mate selection into a gamified experience requiring minimal effort.
The simplicity of the swipe mechanism—right for yes, left for no—reduced complex attraction to binary choices, fundamentally changing dating culture. The gesture has inspired countless derivatives like ‘swipe life’ (the dating app lifestyle) and ‘swipe fatigue’ (exhaustion from endless profile browsing).
The motion has become so synonymous with dating that competing apps use different interaction methods specifically to differentiate themselves from ‘swipe-based’ platforms.
The Digital Dictionary Dilemma
Language continues evolving faster than ever in our connected world. Dictionaries will always trail behind living language as they require time to observe, analyze, and formalize new meanings.
This gap between official definitions and everyday usage reminds us that we—the speakers—are the true authors of language change, pushing words into new territories long before they’re formally documented. As technology accelerates cultural shifts, this lag grows more pronounced, creating a fascinating window where words exist in linguistic limbo—understood by most but officially unrecognized.
Perhaps in this digital age, we need more dynamic dictionaries that can evolve as quickly as the language they document.
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