We’re getting to that time of year when a lot of lists start coming out reflecting on the past year. Various dictionaries start releasing their most searched for word or a word that seems to have been trending amongst people and in the media over the past year.
Dictionary.com has released their 2026 word of the year and it may surprise a few people considering it’s more of a slang word. “Maxxing” was the most researched term online and it means to optimize a certain part of your life to the fullest. It’s usually preceded by another word to describe what one is excelling at.
For example, “looksmaxxing” means to significantly improve one’s physical appearance. As another example, “Tokenmaxxing” is described as someone who incorporates as much artifical intelligence at work as possible. Those who plan to spend their winter diving into reading will be “booksmaxxing.” Dictionary.com says the word goes back as far as 2015 when people were using the terms “moneymaxxing,” “statusmaxxing,” and “surgerymaxxing,” but it wasn’t until 2025 when the word really took off in society.
Other words that were trending on Dictionary.com over the past year included “affordability,” “data centre” (which has been an important term in Saskatchewan in 2026), “odyssey,” and “unc,” which is an affectionate term used to describe an uncle or any other older male in a family.
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