The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has expanded its lexicon for 2026 with the inclusion of 22 new expressions drawn from Nigeria and other West African countries, further recognising the region’s growing influence on global English usage.
The dictionary announced the update in a post on X, stating that 279 new words were added in total, with more than 20 originating from West Africa.
The new entries reflect everyday language, culture, music, food and social expressions commonly used across Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo.
Several Nigerian expressions featured prominently in the update. These include ‘abeg, Afrobeats, Ghana Must Go, biko, mammy market, amala, nyash and moi moi‘.
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Ghana also recorded multiple entries, with ‘kpanlogo, light soup, abrokyire and ampesi‘ among the newly recognised words.
The OED noted that many of the additions function across different parts of speech, serving as nouns, verbs or adverbs depending on context.
For example, abeg was described as both an interjection and an adverb used “to express a range of emotions, such as surprise, exasperation, disbelief, etc”.
The full list of West African expressions added in the 2026 update includes ‘abeg, abrokyire, Adowa, Afrobeats, amala, ampesi, benachin, bichir, biko, domoda, dumboy, Ghana Must Go, hiplife, kpanlogo, light soup, mammy market, moi moi, nawetan, nyash, obroni, poda-poda and yassa‘.
This latest update builds on previous expansions that have acknowledged African contributions to the English language.
In 2025, the OED added several Nigerian terms, including japa, 419, agbero, abi, area boy, yahoo boy, yahoo, Edo, Kanuri, jand, cross-carpet, kobo, Naija and suya, highlighting the continued global spread of Nigerian and West African expressions.
