It’s time once again for the folks at Dictionary.com to make their semiannual announcement of the new words and definitions that they’ve added to their ever-growing list. This time they’ve added not only 327 new words to their lexicon, but 173 new definitions as well as 1,228 revised ones.

In the list’s introduction, we’re reminded by Senior Editor Nick Norlen and Director of Lexicography Grant Barrett that “As always, all of our dictionary work is descriptive — we describe language as it is really used (not just how we or others may wish it would be used).”

We’re also urged to “Keep in mind that words that are new to the dictionary are not always new to the language (or even remotely recent), but their addition often reflects a prominent place in the lexicon.” So without further adieu, let’s take a look at some of those new words and revised definitions.

In the slang category, “girl dinner” went viral after being used by TikToker Olivia Maher this past May. A girl dinner is said to consist of “small quantities of cold cuts, cheese, fruit, cherry tomatoes, etc., deemed sufficient to constitute a meal for one.” Some people might consider such a meal to be “mid” (unimpressive or disappointing), while others would think that it’s absolutely “bussin’” (wonderful; amazing).

Not so bussin’ is the condition known as “boobne,” which is said to be “pimples or rash in the area of the breasts or on the upper back, caused by a bra that chafes, is not clean, or is made of material that is allergenic or not breathable.”

Even though it’s been around for a while, the nervous term “range anxiety” (the fear that an electric vehicle’s battery will run out of power before reaching one’s intended destination or a charging station) has finally made the dictionary’s cut,

Also making the cut is the slightly newer portmanteau word “skiplagging,” which is defined as “The practice of purchasing an airline ticket for a flight with a layover at one’s true destination (and) getting off at the layover point” in order to avoid paying for a more expensive direct-flight ticket to that destination.

“Cheat code” originally referred to a hidden video game command or code to increase one’s level. Now it also pertains to a ploy that people can use to bypass traditional rules in order to improve themselves.

So, if you employ the cheat code in your effort to gain an unfair advantage, you’re probably also guilty of “fakeness,” or of possessing “artificial, false or insincere behavior, speech, etc.; pretense.”

From the world of science, glyphs are back in wider use these days thanks in part to Canadian geologist Charles William Helm, who in 2019 coined the term “ammoglyph,” which is a fossilized design that early humans had originally created in sand. The term is based on the Greek “ámmo(s),” meaning “sand.”

From a century earlier comes the new entry “dendroglyph,” which was coined by Australian curator Robert Etheridge Jr. and is a message or symbol carved into a tree by indigenous people and often hundreds of years old. Déndron is Greek for “tree.”

In the category of sports, “Tommy John surgery” has now made it to the dictionary. The procedure, which involves the replacement of an inner-elbow ligament, was first performed on the major league pitcher in 1974. (The first malady to be named after a baseball player, ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, was formerly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.)

Another sports-related new entry is “turf toe,” a sprain caused by overextension of the big toe originally associated with playing on artificial surfaces commonly referred to as “Astroturf.”

Another addition to Dictionary.com is the climate-related portmanteau noun “superfog.” Similar to “smog,” superfog is the combination of fog and wildfire smoke from smoldering brush and leaves “that often reduces visibility to less than 10 feet.”

Evidently the smoke that causes smog comes from things like automobiles and factories. More new words next week.

Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.” He can be reached at jlwitherell19@gmail.com.

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