Platisme, masculinisme: The French words added to Larousse dictionary

Around 150 new words have been added to French dictionary, the illustrated Le Petit Larousse 2025, including some Anglicisms such as ‘fast-fashion’ and ‘skatepark’.

Every year, new words are added to the dictionary to reflect changing usage, cultural shifts, and zeitgeist-capturing moments.  The new edition is set to be published on May 22.

A wide editorial team comes together to decide the new words every year.

"The first [criterion] is quantitative and corresponds to the frequency of use of the word: this allows us to come down to around 1500-2000 words [from a longlist of 5,000],” said Carine Girac-Marinier, director of the dictionaries and encyclopaedias department, to Le Figaro.

“Then we apply a qualitative criterion: we check that the word is shared by everyone, and in particular by all generations and the general public.

"We have a lot of new words this year that reflect concerns, developments or strong movements,” she said. “We debate each word. The selection is never simple. Some definitions take a long time to write and require numerous revisions.”

Some of the new words include:

• Masculinisme: A term for a social movement that believes that men are suffering from the emancipation of women. (Known as ‘men’s rights’ or ‘meninism’ in English.)

• Platisme: The belief that the Earth is flat (‘flat-Earthism’).

• Empouvoirement: The act of being empowered, from the US word, often used to describe people feeling more independent and strong.

• Cyberterrorisme: Digital and IT attacks against nation states, or public or private companies.

• Visibiliser: To raise your profile online; to make yourself more visible; to develop your online ‘brand’, either on social media or on professional sites to improve employability.

• Désanonymiser: The act of no longer being anonymous, especially when interacting online. Some have called for a ‘de-anonymous’ law to prevent online bullying and illegal activity.

• Trottinettiste: Someone who uses a ‘trottinette’ (the French word for electric scooter).

• Deconjugaliser: Calculating a social benefit or tax based solely on the resources of a recipient or taxpayer, without taking their relationship or couple status into account.

• Webtoon: A cartoon strip or animated cartoon published online.

• Spéléonaute: Someone who explores caves for leisure/sport (‘speleologist’).

Words only make it into the dictionary if they are considered to be in wide usage. For example, the word “iel” - a gender-neutral term that mixes ‘il’ and ‘elle’ (him/her, he/she), was not included this year because the team found that it was only being widely used by activists.

“It’s only in activist usage [currently], but we’re focused on everyday language,” said linguist and Le Petit Larousse scientific advisor Bernard Cerquiglini.

“The dictionary reflects the evolution of the French language and, through it, the evolution of our society,” said Ms Girac-Marinier.

Climate anxiety

Some words relate to environmental concerns, including:

• Mégabassine: A huge reservoir of water intended for farming use (the construction of which across France has prompted huge protests from environmentalists in recent years).

• Agrotoxique: A characteristic of substances used in farming that can cause damage from the toxins they produce or emit.

"It seems that in the face of [so many] concerns, our society is looking for solutions, with words such as 'ecogeste' or the new meaning given to 'verdir' (to become more respectful of the environment), and the expressions 'zero waste' and 'eternal pollutant',” said Ms Girac-Marinier.

New words borrowed from English

Some of the new words appear to have come straight from English. These include: 

• Fast-fashion: Clothing that is made and sold very cheaply; so much so that shoppers may only wear an item once before discarding. Often described as damaging to workers’ rights, and to the environment. 

• Ultra-trail: A very long running or racing trail, a longer distance than a marathon (42.2 km).

• Skatepark: A concrete park area designed for skate-boarding, with ramps.

• Batch-cooking: Cooking a many days worth of food or meals in one cooking session and storing it in portions in the fridge or freezer, to save time in the week ahead.

“There are fewer and fewer words that come from [food and drink]: the French language appears to have had its fill of them,” said Mr Cerquiglini.

One new beverage that has entered the dictionary however is Kombucha, a fermented drink made from kombu and is of Japanese origin.

Fewer words in this edition come from regionalism and the French-speaking world. One exception is: 

• Se repatrier (to repatriate oneself): To return voluntarily to one's country in order to settle and work there, from West Africa. 

Several new words have come from the world of science and health. They include: 

• Mycobiote (mycobiota): A component of microflora that is found on all mucosal surfaces and on the skin.

• Ciseaux moléculaires (molecular scissors): A laboratory technique that uses an enzyme as a guide to cut a DNA molecule at a targeted location.