Neologism Examples: Invented Words That Stuck
A neologism is a newly coined word or expression that has entered a language. Every word in every language was invented by someone at some point — but most inventions vanish. The neologisms that survive are the ones that fill a genuine gap: they name something that had no name, or name it better than existing words could. From Shakespeare's "assassination" to the internet's "doomscrolling," the history of neologisms is the history of language evolving to meet new realities.
Neologism
"Doomscrolling" — a wholly new word for a new behavior.
A new word coined to name something that previously had no name.
Portmanteau
"Brunch" — breakfast + lunch blended together.
A type of neologism formed by blending two existing words.
What Is a Neologism?
The word neologism (pronounced nee-OL-oh-jism) comes from the Greek neos (new) and logos (word). It refers to any newly created word, term, or phrase — or to an existing word used in a new way. "Google" as a verb is a neologism. "Cloud" meaning remote computing is a neologism (a semantic one — the word existed, but the meaning is new).
Neologisms are distinct from nonce words — words invented for a single occasion that never enter general use. James Joyce's "Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk" from Finnegans Wake is a nonce word. "Quark" from the same novel is a neologism — it was adopted by physics and entered the dictionary.
Neologism vs. Portmanteau
A portmanteau is a specific type of neologism formed by blending parts of two existing words. "Brunch" (breakfast + lunch), "smog" (smoke + fog), and "podcast" (iPod + broadcast) are all portmanteaus. All portmanteaus are neologisms, but not all neologisms are portmanteaus. Some neologisms are entirely new coinages ("quark"), some are acronyms ("laser"), some are borrowed from other languages ("tsunami"), and some are existing words given new meanings ("troll" in internet culture).
How Neologisms Are Formed
Derivation
Adding prefixes or suffixes to existing words: "unfriend" (un- + friend), "mansplaining" (man + explaining), "adulting" (adult + -ing). This is the most common method because it builds on words readers already know.
Compounding
Combining two existing words into one: "eyeball" (eye + ball), "doomscrolling" (doom + scrolling), "moonbeam" (moon + beam). The compound creates a meaning that neither word carries alone.
Blending (Portmanteau)
Merging parts of two words: "chortle" (chuckle + snort), "affluenza" (affluence + influenza), "bromance" (brother + romance). Blends are inherently playful and often carry a humorous or informal tone.
Semantic shift
Giving an existing word a new meaning: "cloud" (computing), "ghost" (cutting off contact), "catfish" (online deception), "troll" (internet harassment). The old meaning doesn't disappear; the word simply gains an additional sense.
Borrowing
Importing words from other languages: "tsunami" (Japanese), "kindergarten" (German), "yoga" (Sanskrit), "algorithm" (Arabic). English is particularly aggressive about borrowing, which is one reason it has the largest vocabulary of any language.
Neologisms from Shakespeare
- —"Assassination" — first used in Macbeth. Before Shakespeare, there was no single word for politically motivated murder.
- —"Eyeball" — from The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
- —"Lonely" — from Coriolanus. Before this, "alone" existed but "lonely" (with its emotional connotation) did not.
- —"Bedazzled" — from The Taming of the Shrew.
- —"Cold-blooded" — from King John. Shakespeare combined two existing words to create a new metaphor for ruthlessness.
- —"Swagger" — from A Midsummer Night's Dream and Henry V.
- —"Gossip" — Shakespeare repurposed this from a noun (a godparent) to mean idle talk.
- —"Lackluster" — from As You Like It.
- —"Fashionable" — from Troilus and Cressida.
- —"Uncomfortable" — from Romeo and Juliet.
- —"Moonbeam" — combining "moon" and "beam" into a single compound.
- —"Obscene" — first appears in English in Richard II.
- —"Rant" — from Hamlet.
- —"Bloodstained" — from King John and Titus Andronicus.
- —"Arch-villain" — from Measure for Measure.
Neologisms from Literature
- —"Utopia" — Thomas More (1516). From Greek ou-topos, "no place." Now means any ideal society.
- —"Chortle" — Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). A blend of "chuckle" and "snort."
- —"Galumphing" — Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky (1871). Means to march clumsily. From "gallop" and "triumph."
- —"Nerd" — Dr. Seuss, If I Ran the Zoo (1950). Originally a creature; now defines a cultural identity.
- —"Quark" — James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939). Murray Gell-Mann adopted it for subatomic particles.
- —"Big Brother" — George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Now synonymous with government surveillance.
- —"Doublethink" — George Orwell. Holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously.
- —"Newspeak" — George Orwell. Deliberately impoverished language designed to limit thought.
- —"Thoughtcrime" — George Orwell. An unorthodox thought regarded as a criminal offense.
- —"Catch-22" — Joseph Heller (1961). A paradoxical situation from which there is no escape.
- —"Grok" — Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961). To understand something intuitively and completely.
- —"Cyberspace" — William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984). The virtual realm of computer networks.
- —"Hobbit" — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (1937). A race of small, home-loving creatures.
- —"Muggle" — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter (1997). A non-magical person; now used broadly for outsiders.
- —"Serendipity" — Horace Walpole (1754). Coined from the fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip.
Scientific and Technical Neologisms
- —"Oxygen" — Antoine Lavoisier (1777). From Greek for "acid-forming."
- —"Dinosaur" — Richard Owen (1842). From Greek deinos (terrible) and sauros (lizard).
- —"Electron" — George Johnstone Stoney (1891).
- —"Robot" — Karel Čapek, R.U.R. (1920). From Czech robota, meaning forced labor.
- —"Gene" — Wilhelm Johannsen (1909). The fundamental unit of heredity.
- —"Antibiotic" — Selman Waksman (1941).
- —"Black hole" — John Archibald Wheeler (1967). A region of spacetime with inescapable gravity.
- —"Meme" — Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (1976). A unit of cultural information. Now primarily refers to internet images.
- —"Byte" — Werner Buchholz (1956). A unit of digital information.
- —"Laser" — Gordon Gould (1957). Acronym: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
- —"Software" — John Tukey (1958).
- —"Internet" — Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn (1974). Short for "internetworking."
- —"Spam" (unsolicited messages) — derived from the Monty Python sketch (1970s), applied to email in the 1990s.
- —"Podcast" — Ben Hammersley (2004). A blend of "iPod" and "broadcast."
- —"Hashtag" — Chris Messina (2007). The # symbol used to tag topics on social media.
Modern Neologisms (21st Century)
- —"Selfie" — became widespread around 2012. A self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a smartphone.
- —"Ghosting" — silently cutting off all communication with someone. Entered mainstream use around 2015.
- —"Doomscrolling" — compulsively scrolling through bad news. Emerged during 2020.
- —"Breadcrumbing" — sending flirtatious but non-committal messages to keep someone interested.
- —"Gaslighting" — derived from the 1944 film Gaslight; became a mainstream term in the 2010s.
- —"Mansplaining" — a man explaining something to a woman in a condescending way. Coined after Rebecca Solnit's 2008 essay.
- —"Binge-watch" — watching multiple episodes of a show in rapid succession. Popularized by streaming services.
- —"Catfishing" — creating a fake online identity to deceive someone.
- —"FOMO" — Fear Of Missing Out. Acronym that became a standard word.
- —"Adulting" — performing the routine tasks of a responsible adult, used humorously.
- —"Flex" (as in showing off) — from hip-hop culture, entered mainstream use in the 2010s.
- —"Ship" (as a verb) — wanting two people (usually fictional) to be in a relationship.
- —"Stan" — an extremely devoted fan. From the Eminem song (2000), became a verb in the 2010s.
- —"Cancel" (cancel culture) — withdrawing support for a public figure. Mainstream since 2019.
- —"Simp" — someone who does too much for a person they like. Popularized on social media around 2019.
Neologisms from Film, TV, and Music
- —"Paparazzi" — from Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960), where a photographer character was named Paparazzo.
- —"Gaslight" — from the 1944 film; now a verb meaning to psychologically manipulate someone.
- —"D'oh" — Homer Simpson's exclamation, added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2001.
- —"Unfriend" — popularized by Facebook, though the concept predates social media.
- —"Affluenza" — blend of "affluence" and "influenza." A social condition of materialism.
- —"Frenemy" — a person who is both friend and rival. Popularized by Sex and the City.
- —"Bromance" — a close non-sexual friendship between men. From film culture.
- —"McMansion" — an oversized, cheaply built suburban house. Cultural criticism via neologism.
- —"Staycation" — a vacation spent at home. Became popular during economic recessions.
- —"Infomercial" — a long television commercial disguised as entertainment.
What Makes a Neologism Stick?
It fills a genuine gap
The most successful neologisms name something that previously had no concise name. "Doomscrolling" stuck because no existing word captured the specific, compulsive act of scrolling through distressing news on a phone. Before the word existed, you'd need an entire sentence to describe the behavior. After it, you need one word.
It sounds right
Successful neologisms have a phonetic quality that matches their meaning. "Chortle" sounds like a chuckle-snort hybrid. "Swagger" sounds like the confident walk it describes. "Doom" in "doomscrolling" carries the weight of the activity. When a word's sound contradicts its meaning, it rarely catches on.
It's easy to use
Words that can be easily conjugated, pluralized, and dropped into existing sentence structures have a much better chance of survival. "Google" became a verb effortlessly: "I googled it," "she's googling," "just google that." Words that resist grammatical integration ("How do you conjugate that?") tend to die out.
It spreads through culture
Neologisms need a vector. Shakespeare's words spread through the theater. Orwell's spread through classrooms. Modern neologisms spread through social media. The speed at which a word can reach millions of people has accelerated dramatically, which is why new words emerge (and sometimes disappear) faster than ever.
Tips for Creating Neologisms in Your Writing
Make it necessary. Don't invent a word when a perfectly good one already exists. Readers accept neologisms when they feel that the new word captures something no existing word can. In speculative fiction, neologisms work because the world itself is new — new technology, new social structures, new biology all demand new vocabulary.
Build from familiar roots. The most accessible neologisms are built from recognizable parts. "Doomscrolling" is instantly understandable because both "doom" and "scrolling" are common words. "Quidditch" works in Harry Potter because it sounds like an English word even though it isn't one.
Let context do the defining. Don't stop to define your neologism with a dictionary-style explanation. Instead, use it in context so the meaning becomes clear through usage — just as it would in real life. Orwell never defines "doublethink" in a footnote; he shows it in action.
Be consistent. Once you coin a word, use it consistently throughout your work. If characters in your novel use "sparkjumping" to describe teleportation, don't switch to "blinkhopping" halfway through. Consistency is what makes a neologism feel like a real word rather than a gimmick.
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