Yes, a word you made up can end up in the dictionary, but only if other people start to use it too. Dictionary editors add a word when many people use it, over a long enough time, for a meaning that no other word covers.
Do you have a word that you made up yourself, and would you like to see it in the dictionary? As crazy as it may sound, it can happen. Here is how a made-up word finds its way into the dictionary.
Words only a few people know
Most of us have special words for our friends or loved ones that are not real words at all. The pet names your parents or grandparents gave you as a baby count too. Words such as frubbie or cutiecoggle may be new to you, but somewhere, someone knows them well, because that is what they were called.
Have you coined a word yet?
Believe it or not, lexicographers, the people who compile dictionaries, are often asked: "How do I get a word I have coined into the dictionary?" That is because people make up words all the time, as a way to make a point in their own way. This is especially true of teenagers. At school or with their friends, young people keep inventing words that only they understand. Most of these words never make it beyond their circle, but some become popular and even make it into the dictionary. Still, popularity alone does not guarantee a place in the dictionary.
For a taste of what has made it in, read about 15 crazy and weird words in the English dictionary.
How dictionary editors decide
The people who decide which words make it in weigh several things. First, they look at how the word is actually used: by how many people, in what kinds of texts, and for how long. A word that only one group of friends uses, or that is in fashion for a few months only, is unlikely to make it. Second, they check that the word serves a purpose that similar words do not. Even a word that many people use still needs to fill a gap in the language.
Influence and fame count
People who are famous, or who have a lot of influence, have a better chance of getting a word into the language. That includes writers, actors, and politicians. William Shakespeare is the classic example: many words are first recorded in his plays, among them addiction, buzzer, lonely, lustrous, and the verb to elbow. Many of them are still in everyday use.
Dr. Seuss is credited with the first known printed use of the word nerd, in his 1950 children's book If I Ran the Zoo. And the TV host Stephen Colbert made the word truthiness so popular that the American Dialect Society named it its Word of the Year for 2005. Word of the Year: a history tells you more about that tradition.
Another way to get a word into the dictionary is to invent, discover, or create something that has no name yet. Many scientists and entrepreneurs have made it into the dictionary, and into the history books, because they did not only discover or invent something, but also gave it a name.
It could happen to you
On social media, anything can become a sensation overnight. That means a word you invented could suddenly be seen and used by thousands of people. That does not guarantee your word a place in the dictionary, but it is a great start. And even if it never makes it, you can enjoy knowing that you were part of something for a while. So keep playing with words: you never know, it could happen to you.