Le Petit Robert 2026 Adds New Words, Including AI Terms and Olympic Heroes

New Word Additions to Le Petit Robert

• 💡 Over 150 new words and expressions have been added to the 2026 edition of Le Petit Robert, reflecting their transition from street usage to formal dictionary inclusion.
• 🗣️ These additions include a mix of definition changes, English loanwords now common in French, and regional expressions.
• 🤖 Artificial intelligence is now used by the dictionary publishers to help identify and analyze new words for potential inclusion.

Notable New Entries

• 💻 The English word 'prompt' has been added, reflecting its common usage in French.
• 🌊 'Bombe carbone' (carbon bomb) and 'larmes de sirène' (mermaid's tears), a term for microplastics, are among the new poetic and concerning entries.
• 💊 Terms like 'chemsex' and 'cécifoot' (blind football) have been added, with 'sum shimik' (chemical submission) included following discussions around date rape drugs.

Honoring Champions and Preserving Tradition

• 🏅 The dictionary now includes names of athletes who excelled at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, such as rugby player Antoine Dupont and swimmer Léon Marchand.
• 📚 While new words are added annually, the dictionary maintains its extensive vocabulary of 65,000 words, with significant culling of older terms occurring only every 5 to 10 years.