Ever walked into a room feeling confident, only to realise someone else has effortlessly stolen the spotlight? Or spent hours perfecting an outfit, only for your friend’s look to make yours seem ordinary? The internet has a word for that: mogging.
Collins English Dictionary has named ‘mogging’ its Word of the Year for 2026, recognising the growing popularity of the slang term among Gen Z and Gen Alpha, particularly across social media platforms.
According to the Associated Pressthe word recorded a 210 per cent increase in usage this year. The announcement was made on Tuesday, November 3, reflecting how online language continues to shape everyday English.
WHAT DOES ‘MOGGING’ MEAN?
According to Collins Dictionary, ‘mogging’ means outshining or outperforming someone or something.
The term is commonly used when someone appears more attractive, confident, stylish, or impressive than another person. It can also describe anything that makes something else look comparatively less impressive.
The word is believed to have originated from AMOG, short for ‘alpha male of the group’. It began circulating 2016 as a noun in bodybuilding communities, where it referred to the most physically dominant man in a gym.
Over time, it evolved into a verb and found popularity in online manosphere spaces before spreading across social media and everyday internet conversations.
Today, its meaning has expanded well beyond fitness and physical appearance. From teenagers outperforming professional athletes to a video game overshadowing an older favourite, almost anything can be described as mogging something else.
The term is often used humorously, making it less about serious competition and more about playful comparisons.
FIVE EXAMPLES OF HOW TO USE THE WORD
Wondering how to use the word without sounding like you just discovered the internet? Here are five everyday situations where ‘mogging’ fits perfectly.
1. When your friend has the better outfit
“Bro, you are mogging me today. I should have stayed home.”
Use it when someone else’s fashion choices make your own outfit feel less impressive.
2. When someone steals the spotlight
“She walked into the party and started mogging everyone.”
A playful way of saying someone instantly became the most impressive or noticeable person in the room.
3. When your gym buddy outperforms you
“I thought I was having a great workout until Rahul started mogging me with those weights.”
Perfect for describing someone who makes your fitness achievements look modest in comparison.
4. When a new game beats your favourite
“This new game is completely mogging the old one.”
The word is no longer limited to people. It can describe products, entertainment and even technology outperforming their competitors.
5. When someone’s food looks ridiculously good
“I spent three hours baking a cake, and my sister’s five-minute dessert is mogging mine.”
Because apparently, even your homemade food can get outshined.
WHAT OTHER WORDS MADE THE SHORTLIST?
Mogging was not the only internet-friendly or culturally relevant expression to feature on Collins Dictionary’s 2026 shortlist.
Other shortlisted words reflected everything from online friendships and workplace frustrations to climate concerns and technological anxieties.
These included:
- Friendslop: Content shared between friends, often deliberately silly or low-quality, simply for entertainment.
- Ghost job: A job advertisement for a position that does not actually exist or is not genuinely being filled.
- Carspreading: The increasing amount of space occupied by cars.
- Firewave: A prolonged or intense period of extreme heat.
- Hydration break: A pause to drink water, particularly during physical activity or in hot weather.
- Fricy: A combination of fruity and spicy flavours.
- Bixie: A hairstyle combining elements of a bob and a pixie cut.
- P(doom): An estimate of the probability of a catastrophic outcome, particularly in discussions around artificial intelligence.
The shortlist captures a year in which internet culture, technology, workplace anxieties and everyday experiences continued to shape the language people use.
And if someone tells you that your favourite slang word is outdated, you can always remind them that the internet has a new way of saying someone is outshining everyone else.
Just make sure they aren’t mogging you while you explain it.
– Ends
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