The queer slang term, “Lewk,” has officially been added to the Cambridge Dictionary, which defines it as “a particular style, fashion, or outfit… especially one that is unusual and impressive.”

Sample sentences provided after the definition include other common slang: “Your lewk is giving Barbie”; “This girl knows how to serve lewks.”

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The word was popularized by both social media and RuPaul’s Drag Race after originating in drag and queer subcultures.

“Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary,” Colin McIntosh, lexical program manager for the Cambridge Dictionary, told The Guardian, adding that only words with “staying power” are added.

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Other words that were added this year include “delulu,” “tradwife,” and “Skibidi.”

LGBTQ+ words have been increasingly added to dictionaries as queer culture continues to become more mainstream.

In 2019, Merriam-Webster named the personal pronoun “they” as the word of the year. The same year, the publisher announced the addition of three new trans words: gender nonconforming, top surgery, and bottom surgery. The gender-neutral pronoun (along with “themself”) was also added.

In 2022, the Oxford English Dictionary added a whopping 18 LGBTQ+ words, including gender-affirming, LGBTQ, gender expression, gender presentation, Enby, anti-gay, and TERF.

In 2023, Dictionary.com added words like pinkwashing, queerbaiting, abrosexual, multisexual, polysexual, and the phrase “gay marry” as a verb. A few years earlier, it also added ace, biromantic, and deadname. It also replaced the words “homosexual” and “homosexuality” with “gay,” “gay man,” “gay woman” or “gay sexual orientation,” based on discussions with GLAAD and in accordance with American Psychological Association guidelines.

Dictionary.com said it made these changes to avoid implying or suggesting that being gay or bi is a pathology.

“For example, we now define ‘gayness’ as ‘gay or lesbian sexual orientation or behavior’ compared to the outmoded gloss of ‘homosexuality.’ These changes alone affect over 50 entries,” they wrote in their update for September.

The previously used terms – homosexual and homosexuality – originated as clinical language, and dictionaries have historically perceived such language as scientific and unbiased. But ‘homosexual’ and ‘homosexuality’ are now associated with pathology, mental illness, and criminality, and so imply that being gay – a normal way of being – is sick, diseased, or wrong.”

The website also changed the definition of words with the -sexual suffix, updating “the phrasing of ‘romantically or sexually attracted to’ to ‘romantically, emotionally, or sexually attracted to.’”

“Not only do these revisions help eliminate heterosexual bias in language, they also help better convey the diversity and richness of – and take Pride with a capital P in – human sexual experience and identity,” Dictionary.com explained, also saying that they added a new entry for the word “Pride” that refers to “events” or “recognition” of LGBTQ+ people.

Dictionary.com also declared “woman” its 2022 word of the year amidst the rise of the GOP’s anti-trans agenda. Republicans spent the better part of that year trying (and failing) to prove that they could easily define what makes someone a “woman.”

The website explained that the word “continues to be a source of intense personal importance and societal debate” and that it was “inseparable from the story of 2022.”

“Our selection of woman as our 2022 Word of the Year reflects how the intersection of gender, identity, and language dominates the current cultural conversation and shapes much of our work as a dictionary,” the announcement continued, adding that at its highest point, searches for the word rose by over 1400%.

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