‘Skibidi’ and ‘tradwife’: social media words added to Cambridge dictionary

Words popularised by Gen Z and Gen Alpha including “skibidi”, “delulu”, and “tradwife” are among 6,000 new entries to the online edition of the Cambridge Dictionary over the last year, its publisher said Monday.

Cambridge University Press said tradwife, a portmanteau of traditional wife, reflected “a growing, controversial Instagram and TikTok trend that embraces traditional gender roles”.

The dictionary also took on the challenge of defining skibidi, a word popularised in online memes, as a term which had “different meanings such as cool or bad, or can be used with no real meaning”.

The gibberish word was spread by a YouTube channel called “Skibidi Toilet” and is associated with the mindless, “brain rot” content found on social media and consumed by Gen Alpha’s overwhelmingly digital l