There is no such word in the dictionary. The screenshot that is being shared online was edited.
Russian sources report that after the meeting between the Ukrainian President and Donald Trump, a new word has supposedly appeared in Webster’s dictionary – «zelenskied,» which means «to lose everything through one’s stupidity.» As proof of this, they add a screenshot from the dictionary. The news has also spread in the English-speaking segment of the network.
However, this news is fabricated. This can be proven by a basic search in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which does not yield any results for the made-up slang term «zelenskied.» Moreover, the words totally fucked and dumbassified, which also appear in the screenshot as «similar terms,» are also absent from the dictionary database.
In any case, the process of adding new words to the dictionary is not so quick: it is important that the words have been widely used for some time. «Our lexicographers monitor a huge range of sources to select which words and definitions to add. From academic journals to social media, these give us a very thorough view of the English language,» says Peter Sokolowski, editor at large of the dictionary. In 2024, 200 new words were added to the dictionary, including MAGA (Make America Great Again), beach read and burrata (a type of cheese). All of these words are widely used in various contexts, while «zelenskied» has only appeared online since yesterday and exclusively in propagandist publications about this fake news.
We refuted yet another Russian disinformation aimed at discrediting the President of Ukraine in the article Fake: Zelensky Buys House Owned by German Nazi Party for 14 Million Euros.
