2026 Word of the Year: Doomscrolling

Plus 'gerrymander', 'touch grass', 'performative', and other words that defined the year

Doomscrolling

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen doomscrolling as the 2026 Word of the Year. We define doomscroll as “to spend excessive time scrolling through online content (especially news) that makes one feel sad, anxious, angry, etc.”

The word names a habit people already knew: one more headline, one more feed, long after you meant to stop. In 2026 it moved from slang into everyday talk.

Doomscrolling blends doom and scroll. A related noun, doomscroller, is the person who keeps going.

Example: After the markets closed she spent three hours doomscrolling Instagram ($META), jumping from breaking-news clips to comment wars she had sworn she would ignore.

That is the pattern the word names: not one post, but the loop. A doomscroller keeps the feed moving because each item promises context and delivers another jolt. On Instagram, owned by Meta Platforms ($META), that loop is built to continue—short video, headline sticker, then the next reel—until “just checking” has eaten the evening.

Gerrymander

Lookups rose as redistricting stayed in the news. To gerrymander is to draw districts that give one group an unfair advantage.

Touch Grass

The phrase means taking part in ordinary life offline. It is the unofficial opposite of doomscrolling.

Performative

Performative means done for show. Lookups stayed high for politics, posting, and everyday image-making.