Merriam-Webster Adds ‘Metaverse’ and ‘Altcoin’ To Its Dictionary

The United State’s oldest dictionary publisher is carving out space for cryptocurrencies. The dictionary publisher added a fresh batch of terms including “Altcoin,” “Metaverse,” and “Unbanked” to its lexicon in a nod to crypto.

Merriam-Webster defined “altcoin” as any of the 20,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation “that are regarded as alternatives to established cryptocurrencies and especially to Bitcoin.” The definition has many Ethereum fans upset who have for years argued that Ethereum, alongside Bitcoin, is no longer an altcoin. Included in the September list of addition is the term “metaverse” which is defined as:

A persistent virtual environment that allows access to and interoperability of multiple individual virtual realities.

Opposite to the term “metaverse” is “meatspace,” which the dictionary defines as:

The physical world and environment, especially as contrasted with the virtual world of cyberspace.

By confirming these terms into the everyday lexicons, it may also bring clarity to very foggy phrases for the general public. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg, who rebranded his company around the term “metaverse” defined it as “an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it.” Crypto-related technologies such as NFTs also play a big role in the metaverse. NFT earned itself the title of Collins Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2021.

Merriam-Webster Takes a Note From Crypto Twitter

The dictionary publisher also included hundreds of financial terms that you are likely to find on crypto Twitter. Words such as “unbanked” and “underbanked” refer to individuals who have no or limited access to banking services. The term “shrinkflation” was included to mean the reduction of a product’s volume per unit despite being offered at the same price. One of the final terms included is “use case” which refers to “a use to which something can be put.” “Use case” is something crypto’s harshest critics claim the asset fundamentally lacks.

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