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Dictionary.com's Word Of The Year · The Cubby and Christine Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Coming up here at the end of the year. I
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: hate to say it. You know, Christmas is in 59 days. Yes.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: So we're already, you know, hearing these things about end
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: of year things.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's happening. Yep.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: So we have the word of the year of 2026.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: From dictionary.com.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: And everybody, I feel like every like encyclopedia puts it
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: out though.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: You got a Merriam coming soon, I'm sure. You got
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: a Webster's coming soon. Dictionary.com has been putting out words
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: of the year since 2010. So do we have 2026?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: We do, sir. Are you ready? Wait. No, I'm not.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: The word is?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Nope, nope. Let me find my sound effect.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Where's my little... Ah.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Here we go.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: The dictionary.com word of the year of 2026 is... Maxing.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Maxing refers to the practice of pursuing an activity to
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the fullest or optimizing a certain aspect of your life.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: It's used as a suffix as well as a standalone
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: word embodying our modern obsession with doing everything to the max.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Maxing with two X's. It kind of started with look
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: maxing and then it went into everything. Do you know
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: what I mean? Like just whatever you're into, wellness maxing,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: workout maxing.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Maxing and relaxing.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I would like to do sleep maxing if possible. Yes.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: But it sounds very 90s to me, maxing, because I
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: think about the whole maxing and relaxing. That was a saying,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I think, in the 90s.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: But there you go.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Retro feel to it. Last year's word for the record
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: was 6-7.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I remember that vividly. I feel like that never went away.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of glad that's sort of retired, though, because
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: no one could ever really make sense of that one.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Do you remember 2024? No. Because now I'm pulling it up.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, what is it?
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Demure. Oh. I remember talking about that word.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because that's something that went viral. Somebody was using
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the word demure. So, I mean, Maxing went viral. Looks
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Maxing is where it started. And we started adding it in.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: We have the finalists, the words that were considered.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Give them to me.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Before getting to maxing. Never know how to say this.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Data center or data center. But you know what I'm
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: talking about.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: I've always said data, but I don't think it matters, right?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Data, data, data center.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Which sadly we're hearing a lot about these days. They're
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: popping up everywhere.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, including like possibly my neighborhood. So we're working on that.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Unc.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Short for uncle. Gen Z, Gen Alpha likes this as
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: kind of a slang term for a person who's a
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: little older, who's uncool, trying too hard, or just doesn't
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: get it.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: But is uncle that long of a word where you've
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: got to shorten it to unk?
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's the meaning behind it. An odyssey,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: a long and eventful journey such as that of Homer's
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: protagonist in his epic poem, which, you know, the movie
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: was big this year. So we had data center, unk. Odyssey,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: but the winner is Maxing. Oh, and another one, and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: this is huge, Affordability. They considered that as well.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: But it didn't make it, but it's up there.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: It should definitely be up there. The quality of being inexpensive,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: which is an issue at the center of American life
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: right now, yes.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Three hours, commercial-free, Maxing kicks off at 8.20.