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The Latest Sign That Millennials Are Destroying The English Language

Aug 14, 2014, 20:07 IST

Flickr"Adorbs" would classically be used to describe something like five kittens drinking milk from a metal bucket.

"Adorbs." "Side boob." "Amazeballs."

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These represent only a small selection of the new words that have been added to OxfordDictionaries.com - the free online dictionary from Oxford Dictionaries - in an update that demonstrates the growing influence that the internet and social media culture have on the English language.

Other new entries include binge-watch (popularized by the release of Netflix's original series that allows viewers to watch them all at once), "cray" (crazy), "humblebrag" (someone who brags through a veil of self-deprecation) and "listicle" (basically an article in the media in the form of a list that has a lot of pictures).

Millennials have help to create these new silly-sounding phrases, using the internet as a medium to spread them through sharing platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

"One of the advantages of our unique language monitoring program is that it enables us to explore how English language evolves differently across the world," Oxford Dictionaries editor Katherine Connor Martin said in a statement.

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For example, "adorbs" is used four times more frequently in the U.S. than the U.K., while the Brits are really into using the term "side boob" (it means what you think it means) and "cotch," meaning to relax.

Shakespeare might be rolling his grave, but hey, YOLO.

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