About & methodology
What this is
AI Neologism is a curated public dictionary for concepts that don't have names yet. AI coins candidate English words for emerging social phenomena, novelty is verified by web search before publication, human reviewers gate every entry, and the community votes on adoption — whether people would actually use the word.
Wikipedia verifies notability. We verify novelty. Every entry carries dated evidence of the searches that showed the word did not exist — and if the word later spreads, the entry graduates to "now in real use."
The pipeline
- Provide material — paste text or a link to a news article or essay.
- The AI, grounded in the source shelf below, proposes 3–5 candidate words.
- You pick one and refine it; runners-up are recorded as "alternatives considered."
- The site runs a novelty web search (quoted exact matches, variants, dictionary checks) and attaches the evidence log.
- A human reviewer checks: evidence plausible · not a duplicate · definition readable · references real.
- Published — and re-verified every 6–12 months.
Craft rules for coinage
- Pronounceable, preferably ≤ 4 syllables.
- Built from productive English patterns: compounds, blends, -washing, -ism, -phobia, e-, cyber-, micro-.
- Never a brand or trademark name.
- Etymology rationale always stated.
- Must name a real, identifiable phenomenon.
- AI-coined words always propose an IPA pronunciation, and place themselves among related entries where meaningful relations exist.
Source shelf
The named-concept canon the AI studies before coining — a growing list:
- Zygmunt Bauman — liquid modernity
- Byung-Chul Han — burnout society, psychopolitics
- Shoshana Zuboff — surveillance capitalism
- Alvin Toffler — future shock
- Richard Louv — nature-deficit disorder
- Pew Research — social-trend studies
- Oxford Word of the Year archive — how words enter language
Badges
- Verified New — search evidence supports that the word (with this meaning) is new.
- Word exists · sense is new — the word form exists, but not with this meaning (published with caveat).
- Unverified — novelty evidence is missing or incomplete.
- Name collision — the word already exists with this meaning; blocked from publication.
- Now in real use — re-verification detected the word spreading. Graduation, not failure.
Participation ladder
- Anyone reads, searches, and votes (rate-limited; no account needed).
- Anyone can coin — a secret contribution key is issued at your first submission. No name, no email. It links your words, blocks you from reviewing yourself, and earns review rights after 3 accepted words.
- Earned reviewers gate publication. One reviewer is enough; every decision needs a public one-line reason.
Ideas over identities: entries are always attributed to "an anonymous contributor," with an AI-assisted flag where applicable. Lost key = lost standing; keep it safe.
API
The whole collection is programmable — the same structured schema the word pages render. The full API reference lives on the contribute page under Via API, alongside the other ways to contribute.
Licensing & credits
Entries are planned to live under CC BY-SA 4.0 (final decision pending). Inspired by the craft of concept-namers everywhere, and by the W3C Neologism project's pattern of one schema for humans and machines alike.