English is an especially vibrant language. The meaning of its words evolves over time. This can be organic, the product of changing habits or technology (“wireless”). It can reflect changing social mores (“gay”). Sometimes words can be repurposed by a young generation. When someone under 30 tells me someone is “sick,” I know not to worry about his health.
But this lexical flexibility can be confusing. A common understanding of terminology is essential for everything from simple conversation to the cohesion of an entire society. English has a particular facility to be manipulated for tendentious purposes. This isn’t new. In 1871 Lewis Carroll ’s Humpty Dumpty told Alice: “When I use a word, it means whatever I choose it to mean.” In 1948 George Orwell identified “Newspeak” as an essential component of the totalitarian toolkit: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
Our polarized, relativist, “post-truth” era is ripe for such manipulation. As people slip deeper into their own epistemically closed worlds, politicians, public-relations specialists and journalists have become increasingly adept at adapting words to suit their own purposes.
In 2025 we have had another fresh crop of words that mean one thing in one set of circumstances, and something different in another:
• Affordability. Insufficient sensitivity to the cost of living proved costly for leaders from Marie Antoinette to Joe Biden . Last year, “affordability” was ignored by Democrats and amplified by Republicans. The Biden administration’s insouciance towards inflation helped elect Donald Trump , who pledged in his inaugural address to “rapidly bring down costs and prices.” Now that prices have continued to increase, “affordability” is a “Democratic con job.” While the word’s meaning might have changed, polling suggests voters’ views about the underlying reality haven’t. Poor Queen Marie could have advised Mr. Trump that when you’re building a new ballroom for the executive mansion it’s unwise to dismiss popular concerns about the cost of everyday staples.
• Socialism. This was one of those words we thought we had buried in the last century. Even the Chinese Communists don’t believe in it any more. But both the word and the ideas it describes refuse to die. In 2025 America’s largest city and the heart of global capitalism elected a socialist as its mayor . A Gallup poll recently found that 66% of Democrats have a favorable view of the ideology that brought the world the gulag and the Trabant.
But before Republicans get too excited about this death wish by their opponents, they should consider that “socialism” isn’t only a word. It describes a set of political conditions that also seem to be making a comeback in a surprising place. These can include, among others, the government taking stakes in private companies, the raising of hundreds of billions in taxes on Americans, and the president directing foreign investment into America.
• Redistricting. This is a fine example of euphemism. It sounds like a bit of harmless bureaucratic cartography. But it has completely different meanings depending on where you live and what your politics are. If you are a Democrat and you live in Massachusetts, where 40% of the state typically votes Republican, “redistricting” is a virtuous and necessary act that ensures that those millions of Republicans don’t get a single representative in Congress. But if you’re a Democrat who lives in Republican-controlled Indiana, where roughly the same proportion of the state votes Democratic, “redistricting” is a wicked denial of representation to that 40% of the electorate.
• Pardon. Its old meaning was an act of clemency extended by a legal authority in recognition of a convicted person’s contrition and commitment to reform. In 2025 it formally became a transaction for which the consideration is financial reward or partisan support.
• Famine . This used to have a clear meaning. We’ve seen harrowing pictures of mass starvation and malnutrition in Africa caused by a widespread food deficit. But this year we saw a different sort of “famine” in Gaza. It was encapsulated by the famous New York Times picture of the “starving” boy who turned out to be seriously ill and to have a brother living in the same conditions who was remarkably well-nourished. Some of us at the time suspected that “famine” was being abused by the Western media at the behest of Hamas—and when the cease-fire began, sure enough, evidence of famine was sparse. This is one of the many examples of how the media use words to defame Israel and Jews (see also “ genocide ”).
• Climate crisis, emergency, extinction. This suite of phrases was popular among European political, cultural and media elites even a year or so ago. In 2025 they discovered that the existential crisis it described wasn’t after all as big as any of the ones they face from military, industrial collapse, demographic self-annihilation and industrial decay.
Doubtless 2026 will produce its own set of neologisms. With the World Cup on hand, I’m especially looking forward to “football” replacing “soccer” by presidential decree .
