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'F-Bomb' Added To Dictionary

March 23, 2010: Vice President Biden famously drops an f-bomb.
J. Scott Applewhite
/
AP
March 23, 2010: Vice President Biden famously drops an f-bomb.
Vice President Biden's March 23, 2010, f-bomb (we've bleeped it)

We expect that most folks won't need to look up the definition. But just in case, "f-bomb" now has its own entry in the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

And no, the entry doesn't appear to be illustrated with a image of recent vice presidents (Biden and Cheney), who have been known to drop an f-bomb from time-to-time.

The other 14 new entries in this year's update of the dictionary:

-- aha moment

-- bucket list

-- cloud computing

-- copernicium

-- earworm

-- energy drink

-- game changer

-- gassed

-- gastropub

-- man cave

-- mash-up

-- sexting

-- systemic risk

-- underwater

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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