The pandemic created a special update to the Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. The new words include COVID-19 and social distancing. They also include these related words and definitions:

• Self-isolate: to isolate or separate oneself or itself from others.
• Physical distancing: the practice of maintaining a greater than usual physical space between oneself and other people or of avoiding direct contact with people or objects in public places during the outbreak of a contagious disease in order to minimize exposure and reduce the transmission of infection.
• WFH: abbreviation for “working from home.”
• PPE: abbreviation for “personal protective equipment.”
• Intensivist: a physician who specializes in the care and treatment of patients in intensive care.

New technology words include deepfake: an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said.

An informal pronunciation spelling has turned up in the dictionary as “finna” meaning “fixing to” do something.

And my favorite of the short list I saw is truthiness: a seemingly truthful quality not supported by facts or evidence.

It’s always good to look up words you haven’t seen before or aren’t sure of their meaning in a dictionary. Learn every day. It is so easy with the ability to get dictionary definitions from Merriam-Webster, Oxford, and other reputable dictionaries on a cell phone that it doesn’t make any sense not to understand what a word means so you can use it correctly.

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