"Maxxing" is Dictionary.com's 2026 Word of the Year

From AI chatbots to manner trends, the conception of optimizing one's beingness came sharply into absorption successful 2026. That's wherefore Dictionary.com picked "maxxing," a reflection of our progressively online society, arsenic its latest Word of the Year.

"Maxxing (sometimes -maxxing) is abbreviated for 'maximizing,'" says Dictionary.com. "This trendy word tin beryllium utilized connected its ain oregon added to the extremity of immoderate connection to convey you're doing thing to the fullest oregon optimizing it arsenic overmuch arsenic possible." 

The connection was chosen pursuing an investigation of hunt data, societal media trends and quality stories "to seizure a nine that's profoundly online and focused connected optimization successful each forms," Dictionary.com says.

"Maxxing" roseate done the taste lexicons of Gen Z and Gen Alpha quickly, and present works arsenic a noun, verb, adjective and adverb each astatine once. Leveling up your workout routine? "Gymmaxxing." Your idiosyncratic attraction practices? "Healthmaxxing," an umbrella word that covers galore subgenres, including "proteinmaxxing" and "fibermaxxing."

"Maxxing truly stood retired this twelvemonth due to the fact that not lone was it everywhere, successful each types of articles, but it crossed a batch of antithetic domains," said Steve Johnson, the manager of lexicography for Dictionary Media Group, which runs Dictionary.com.

At work, radical talked astir "tokenmaxxing," meaning leaning ever harder connected AI. In wellness circles, determination was "sleepmaxxing." Even leisure received the "maxxing" treatment, with "cozymaxxing," arsenic did politics, erstwhile the national authorities utilized "homelandmaxxing" successful immoderate of its messaging.

"That's not thing that we often get with a batch of slang terms," Johnson told CBS News.

How Dictionary.com picks a Word of the Year

Johnson keeps a moving database of words to ticker passim the year, immoderate of which person been rolled implicit from years anterior and tracked for increasing usage. To take an yearly winner, Dictionary's lexicographers look astatine however often a connection appears successful quality articles, connected societal media and successful online searches. They besides measurement a word's taste value during selection.

"We not lone look astatine the information down the connection usage, but we besides are truly looking to spot what's capturing thing distinctive that describes the year," Johnson said.

The latest connection prime marks a crook from past year's winner, "67," a word that, contempt its virality, near galore bewildered implicit its meaning. "Maxxing" has had the other effect, Johnson said.

"'Maxxing' is truthful accessible," helium said. "People bash recognize it due to the fact that it's tied to thing that radical instrinsically get."

What is "maxxing"?

The connection itself isn't new. "Maxing out" a recognition card, oregon 100 miles an hr connected the highway, are well-established uses that spell backmost decades. But the newer, optimization-focused explanation comes from crippled theory, Johnson said. In the 1940s, academics utilized "mini-max" to picture a strategy for minimizing their maximum imaginable losses, an thought that aboriginal moved into modern games similar Dungeons & Dragons. In that context, "min-maxing" referred to gathering up a character's strengths successful 1 peculiar area, to the constituent that its weaknesses nary longer mattered.

According to Johnson, words similar "looksmaxxing" gave the word its other "x" and, ultimately, turned it into the inclination it has go today. He said "maxxing" started lasting retired connected its own, too, this year, successful phrases like, "What are you maxxing?" oregon "Everyone's maxxing something."

"Looksmaxxing" remains the astir fashionable mentation of the connection by far. Johnson said its usage roseate much than 1,000% since the commencement of the twelvemonth successful the media that Dictionary.com analyzed, portion "tokenmaxxing" besides grew with the proliferation of AI tools.

What "maxxing" says astir us

Johnson said the connection captures a unit galore radical feel, particularly online, to perpetually do, oregon be, more.

"Whether it's astatine enactment and your career, whether it's successful school, successful truthful galore aspects of your life, conscionable benignant of being much is thing that is simply a unit that I deliberation a batch of radical tin feel," helium said.

The unit has besides produced its ain pushback, arsenic playful versions of the connection similar "normalmaxxing" cull the thrust to optimize everything portion inactive utilizing the aforesaid language.

"One of my favourite 'maxxings' is 'nothingmaxxing,' which is conscionable wholly paradoxical, right?" Johnson said. "It's going each successful an optimizing doing nothing, which besides requires a batch of effort."

The flexibility helps explicate wherefore the connection dispersed truthful widely, helium said, adding: "It resonates with people."

2026 Word of the Year finalists

Dictionary.com pulled from antithetic corners of net culture, politics, exertion and media to compile a database of finalists. Here are the others that were considered:

• Affordability: the prime of being inexpensive, which is an contented astatine the halfway of American beingness and, now, the upcoming midterm elections, arsenic radical look expanding costs of housing, groceries, childcare and more.
• Data center: a gathering oregon installation utilized for processing, storing oregon transmitting ample amounts of machine data, which are cropping up much often astir the U.S. with the emergence of artificial intelligence.
• Unc: short for "uncle," Gen Z and Gen Alpha popularized this humorous and lightly pejorative slang word for an older idiosyncratic who's uncool, trying excessively hard, oregon conscionable doesn't get it. 
• Odyssey: a agelong and eventful journey, specified arsenic that of Homer's protagonist successful his epic poem of the aforesaid name, which this summertime was adapted into an ensemble blockbuster by manager Christopher Nolan.