Americans have gone all in on “maxxing”, making it the 2026 Word of the Year for Dictionary.com.
Short for maximising, the term “can be used on its own or added to the end of any word to convey you’re doing something to the fullest or optimizing it as much as possible”, Dictionary.com said in a statement.
It’s a major departure from two years ago, when the site, after analysing US social media trends, news stories, and search data, chose demure as word of the year. Last year’s was “67”.
“Maxxing is the linguistic manifestation of a culture increasingly preoccupied with getting the most out of everything,” said Steve Johnson, director of lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group.
Digital media used “maxxing” nearly 19 times more in August 2026 compared to the 2025 monthly average, Dictionary.com found. The site also considered affordability, data centre, odyssey, and the shortened form of uncle, “unc”, as potential words of the year.
On social media, many people in Generation Z and younger – those under 30 – post extensively about their maxxing efforts to achieve all sorts of perfection.
Influencers focused on fitness and wellness post about “proteinmaxxing” and “fibermaxxing”. Those giving their full attention to improving sleep habits say they are “sleepmaxxing”.
The influencer Clavicular has gained thousands of followers as he chronicles his extreme “looksmaxxing” – working to meet a set of prescribed criteria for attractiveness, with particular importance given to jawlines, eyes and physique.
“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.”
People were playing with the term – and idea – for decades before Clavicular started posting videos.
In the opening song for the 1990s television show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, for example, Will Smith raps: “Chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool.”
“Unfortunately, by the time the dictionary gets a hold of it, that probably means that it’s reached critical mass,” says teacher Lauren Cella.
Cella, a content creator known for her viral Gen Z history lessons, says she and her students have been using “maxxing” for some time as a suffix.
“They’re actually, in their own way, reinventing grammar, which I think is super cool,” she says.
Maxxing gives the students permission to “optimise to meet a goal” or do something others might think of as “cringe”, and allows them to own it, she says.
“It’s a fun, harmless way that kids are expressing themselves and sharing different goals that they have,” she says.
Linguist Vanessa Croft, who teaches English, says the internet and digital media make language move at “warp speed”, even faster than radio, film or television ever did. As swiftly as new terms are added to the lexicon, they can just as quickly fall out of favour.
“By the time millennials and Gen X or Gen Y start using the terms, Gen Z and Gen Alpha aren’t using those terms anymore,” she says.
While she and her secondary-school aged students are still “maxxing” too, they are now using it “almost ironically”, she says.
(BBC News)