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Anyone grasping for the right word or phrase to describe life in 2020 now has a larger lexicon to work with.  

Dictionary.com has updated thousands of entries and added hundreds of words in its largest release to date, a reflection of the ways in which society and language have evolved even in just the past few months.

 earlier this week that it updated more than 15,000 entries and added 650 brand new terms. Many of the revisions deal with language related to identity and topics like race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality and health and wellness. 

"The work of a dictionary is more than just adding new words. It's an ongoing effort to ensure that how we define words reflects changes in language — and life," said John Kelly, senior editor at Dictionary.com. "Our revisions are putting people, in all their rich humanity, first, and we're extremely proud of that."

The new additions range from social media slang like "

Some of the major sitewide changes to existing entries have to do with race and ethnicity, like capitalizing the word "Black" in reference to people, which the company says it is doing "as a mark of respect and recognition that's in line with capitalizing other cultures and ethnicities." 

Why we now capitalize Black but continue to lowercase white

Examples of entirely new terms in this category include 

Another change replaces references to "homosexual" with "gay, gay man or gay woman," and references to "homosexuality" with "gay sexual orientation." The company said these updates were informed by recommendations from the organization 

It has also refined the definitions for a number of other words related to LGBTQ identity, such as 

The site has updated the language it uses to describe suicide and addiction, in an effort to help destigmatize them. For example, it now uses "die by suicide" or "end one's life," language that mental health professionals and suicide prevention specialists prefer. 

It also updated the entry for "addict" to begin with "a person addicted to" or "a habitual user of," and made similar tweaks to the definition of "alcoholic."  

"These changes foreground the fact that people who have addictions are human beings, first and foremost," it explained in a press release. 

In another sign of the times, the dictionary has introduced a slew of new phrases related to the environment and technology, including 

It's also defined and articulated the differences between emotional support animals, assistance animals and other similar designations. 

And of course, there are buzzy new additions drawn largely from popular and internet culture. Some roll off the tongue: 

The company says many of the additions this fall build off of terms that gained traction this spring and summer. 

The coronavirus pandemic brought viral load and social distance to the site in April, while nationwide protests against racial injustice and police violence have helped introduce 

 phrases like Antifa and Black Lives Matter. 

"Change, no doubt, is a prevailing theme of 2020," the company acknowledged. "And change is fundamental to the work of a dictionary." 

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The digital dictionary updated some 15,000 entries, including adding 650 entirely new words from popular culture. Many of the revisions deal with topics related to identity, like race and gender.

Dictionary.com's largest update (re)defines thousands of words, focusing on identity

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