‘Maxxing’ announced as word of the year by Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com has selected the popular social media term “maxxing” as its word of the year.

Shortened from maximizing, it can be used as a standalone term or combined with another word to imply that somebody is optimizing an action or moment as much as possible.

A common use of the word is “looksmaxxing,” which generally refers to a trend defined by the need to constantly update and refine one’s physical appearance to reach peak attractiveness. The act of “looksmaxxing” is particularly prominent among young male social media users and was popularized by influencer Clavicular.

Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, often employs extreme measures to alter his appearance and once shared a video of himself hitting himself in the face with a hammer in an attempt to sharpen his jaw by breaking it.

Peters’ methods do not apply across all maxxing techniques or activities, which have “reached a broad audience of people with different interests and very different reasons for using it,” Dictionary.com wrote in a statement, adding that it has become a widely used “recognizable template” that is applicable across many areas of everyday life.

Other types of “maxxing” are “proteinmaxxing” and “fibremaxxing,” both of which are widely used in the online wellness and fitness spheres.

“Today, the maxxing family of words turns up in beauty and fitness content, workplace discussions about AI, wellness advice, and many other arenas,” the statement continued.

The term can be used mockingly, ironically, in earnest and in almost any scenario. For example, it may describe a genuine effort to improve a person’s appearance, habits, or performance, or as a means to poke fun at exaggerated ambition.

It is sometimes used to rebrand mundane acitivities as optimal; for example, staying home alone watching a movie and eating snacks may be described as “cozymaxxing.”

Steve Johnson, director of lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group, told the BBC that “Maxxing is the linguistic manifestation of a culture increasingly preoccupied with getting the most out of everything.”

“Whatever we’re doing, we want to push it further,” Johnson said. “But its expanding uses also reveal how people are responding to that impulse. Some embrace it. Some exaggerate it for laughs. Others subvert it entirely to describe stepping back from the relentless pursuit of more.”

The online dictionary also weighed “Affordability,” “Data Center,” “Odyssey,” and “Unc” as candidates for word of the year, all of which were considered by the platform as terms at the forefront of cultural conversation and reflective of shifting social norms.

Two years ago, it bestowed “demure” the title after a TikTok depicting non-demure behaviour in a satirical comment on expectations of modesty and etiquette typically directed towards women went viral.

In 2025, the website’s word of the year was “six seven,” which has no literal or singular definition and is widely considered a nonsensical term coined online by Gen Z and Gen Alpha.