macquarie 
Welcome back to another edition of the New Words blog! My favourite of the five words we’ve curated for you this month is e-changer. It refers to a remote worker who moves from a city to a rural location as part of a lifestyle change. It’s a cute play on sea changer and is very close … Read more
Online word games have taken the world by storm. You can now hone your skills with these five-letter word puzzles at any time, at any place, and more than once a day! All spellings are from Australian English.
If you’re travelling in the waters of Northern Australia make sure you avoid the snapping handbags, that is, the crocodiles. Crocodiles come in many shapes and sizes
This week’s word of the week will cost you around $150 an hour. A dunny diver is a plumber, those stalwart tradies who install and repair piping, fixtures, appliances, and appurtenances in connection with the water supply and drainage systems. Turd strangler is a more colourful name for a plumber. You laugh but from ancient Roman baths to your … Read more
We’re back with a fresh helping of new words for the start of spring! First up is a word you might have seen making the rounds recently. It’s quiet quitting: ceasing to put special effort into one’s job. We think part of its popularity must stem from the rare and lovely alliteration of Q. Of … Read more
We’ve put together a list of six beautiful words for you to enjoy. Understand their meanings and let them roll off your tongue and help you escape even just for a moment in time. From the abstract to reality, at the Macquarie Dictionary, we believe there is beauty in almost every word, but some shine … Read more
This week we are enjoying some horse’s doover. Say what? Horse’s doover is a jocular mispronunciation of hors d’oeuvre that has been part of Aussie slang since the 1970s. References to France, the French and the French language in Australian English are often humorous, with the special aim of butchering that language. Slang words that originated from French … Read more
It’s official, the Macquarie Dictionary staff have gone troppo, as in we’ve gone mental or are mentally disturbed. The most notable usage of troppo was as the title of a 1982 George Harrison solo album. Gone Troppo was an appropriate title for the former Beatles guitarist, who was fed up with the music industry and temporarily retired shortly … Read more
Here at Macquarie Dictionary, especially during this windy and rainy week, we are missing the warmer weather. However, we also know what awaits us at the end of winter. Swooping season. Swooping season is magpie breeding season, during which parent birds tend to attack people or animals in the vicinity of their nests, perceived as … Read more
