Swifties Are Honored

Swifties, your fandom is now officially included in the dictionary. In its 2026 Winter Word Drop, Dictionary.com added more than 15-hundred new entries and one of them is “Swiftie.” It defines the term as “a fan of the music of Taylor Swift,” in case anyone out there wasn’t sure of the meaning.

According to the site’s standards, “Swiftie” has earned its spot. Lexicographers only add new words when they’re widely used, well understood, likely to stick around, and used by a lot of people. Swiftie isn’t the only fandom identifier added this year. It joins “Beyhive,” as in Beyoncé’s fanbase, “Janeite,” for fans of Jane Austen, and “Trekkie,” the fans of “Star Trek.”

Other new entries to Dictionary.com include:

• “Auto-generated” - “Produced or created by a computer program”
• “Health span” - “The typical period of a person’s life during which they are consistently in good health”
• “Hypermobility” - “Greater than normal flexibility or range of motion in one or more joints”
• “Glamazon” - “A woman who is beautiful and glamorous as well as being tall, strong or powerful”
• “Side quest” - “A quest or objective in a story or video game that is related to but not directly part of the main storyline or objective”
• “Black pill” - “Something that makes a person believe there is no hope for resolving a major problem or changing society for the better”
• “White pill” - “Something that makes someone hopeful about their personal future or about changing society for the better”
• “Purple squirrel” - “A hypothetical person sought by an employer, with the ideal combination of temperament, experience, and education for a particular job”
• “Smashburger” - “A hamburger with a patty that is cooked by pressing it very thin onto a hot griddle or cooking surface”

Source: USA Today