See the 500 new words including, nyash, Ghana Must Go, Obroni, Abrokyire recently added to Oxford dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added about 500 new words, phrases and meanings to its lexicon, with several entries originating from West Africa, underscoring the growing global influence of African languages on English.

According to the OED, more than 1,000 existing entries were also revised in the latest update, while editors explored the histories and evolving usage of words such as “troll,” “snooker,” and a range of coffee-related terms.

The update features additions from across the world, including West African English, Maltese English, Japanese English and South Korean English, reflecting the increasingly global nature of the English language.

Several everyday expressions commonly used in Ghana, Nigeria and across West Africa have gained wider recognition beyond their regions of origin. Words such as “abrokyire,” “nyash,” “abeg,” “Ghana Must Go,” and “obroni” are among terms that have entered mainstream usage across parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

The latest additions also include Ghanaian and West African expressions linked to food, music, markets, pop culture and daily conversation, highlighting how local languages and cultures continue to shape modern English.

Commenting on the update, the OED’s Head of Pronunciations, Catherine Sangster, said it marks an important step in how pronunciations are recorded across different varieties of English.

“With this update, we introduce a new model for the transcription of Maltese English pronunciations; this is the nineteenth World English pronunciation model in our collection,” Sangster said.

She also noted that the update coincides with a decade of spoken pronunciations in the OED, which were first introduced in December 2015.

The latest revision, the OED said, reflects not only changes in vocabulary but also the evolving ways English is spoken around the world, with African languages playing an increasingly visible role.

Read the full list of newly added words in the dictionary below

https://www.oed.com/information/updates/december-2025/new-word-entries/