Neologism | Definition, Use & Examples

A neologism is a new word that has been introduced to express a new concept or slant on a topic. It can also be a new meaning to an already existing word. Neologism was itself, rather beautifully, a new word.

What is a neologism?

A neologism is a word that has recently become widespread in its use and is either new (e.g., “selfie”) or has a new meaning (e.g., “sick” for something that is excellent).

Neologisms are sometimes deliberately coined (e.g., Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “soulmate”), while others appear to spring naturally from popular culture or niche interest groups (e.g., an “ollie,” which is a particular stunt on a skateboard).

Sometimes, the new meanings become the accepted dominant meaning. According to Bill Bryson’s Mother Tongue, when King James II saw St. Paul’s Cathedral in London for the first time, he called it “amusing, awful, and artificial, and meant that it was pleasing to look at, deserving of awe, and full of skillful artifice.” Since that time, these words have taken on completely different meanings.

New words are created and discarded all the time, and once they appear in one or more established dictionaries, they are, strictly speaking, no longer neologisms.

What are some different kinds of neologism?

Neologisms evolve, develop, or are created in a number of different ways:

Neologism examples

It is almost certainly true that neologisms find traction faster, and probably fade away faster too, in the rapid modern world of communication and social media. There is a wealth of choices for interesting neologisms, from literature, media, and further afield.

Frequently asked questions about neologism

What is an example of a neologism?

English is full of examples of neologisms, as it borrows words from other languages and invents new words of its own.

Sometimes new words are necessary (to describe new things, like “trackpad” or “doom scrolling”), and sometimes new words simply add to the variety of the language (e.g., “doozy” is a new way of saying something is excellent).

Other types of neologism include portmanteau neologisms that take two words and make a new one from them, such as “guesstimate” from “guess” and “estimate,” “brexit” from “British” and “exit,” and “brunch” from “breakfast” and “lunch.”

Texting and social media messaging have led to a whole new lexicon of neologisms, sometimes incorporating numerals into a new type of shorthand (e.g., “gr8” for “great”) and sometimes making new words from abbreviations (e.g., “lolz,” which means “out-loud laughs” and comes from the abbreviation of “laugh out loud” to “lol,” which is then pluralized with a “z” rather than an “s”).

Is there a difference between neologism and slang?

Very often, slang words are neologisms that then become more mainstream neologisms before entering the general lexicon.

An example of this would be “slam dunk,” a slang term from basketball, which over the years has become a mainstream expression meaning to perform a task with masterful ease.

Other examples include “burn,” meaning “humiliate,” and “hip,” meaning “trendy” or “cool” (itself from slang).

Sometimes slang is a type of jargon and, as such, isn’t a neologism but part of a lexicon that is known by a particular group of people. For example, a sound technician might ask a bass guitarist if they want to “DI” their signal, short for “direct injection.” This is a type of slang but is unlikely to become part of English more generally.

“Dub,” on the other hand, which is another recording studio word, has made it into more common usage.