America’s most trusted online dictionary for English words, Merriam-Webster, adds more than 800 words in their dictionary. Acknowledging the recent trends in technology and finance sector, the dictionary editors also added crypto-terms like “Cryptocurrency,” “Initial Coin Offering aka ICO,” and, “Blockchain” to it.

The company made this announcement on Twitter together with the website. Surprisingly, the Bitcoin logo got middle position on both the website announcement and the official Tweet about the addition of new words in their dictionary. 

Revealing the move, the reference book publisher, Merriam-Webster said that it intends to help clarify the “perplexing domain of digital financial exchanges,” aiming to use examples as a helping point.

“The sometimes perplexing domain of digital financial exchanges opens a window into a subject that requires an explanation for many of us, hence the detailed definition of cryptocurrency as well as an entry for initial coin offering, which refers to the first sale of Bitcoin-like digital currency,” said Merriam-Webster.

What is Virtual Currency? Merriam-Webster Explains

The colossal dictionary catalog the underneath definition of the term: 

Cryptocurrency (n.): any form of currency that only exists digitally, that usually has no central issuing or regulating authority but instead uses a decentralized system to record transactions and manage the issuance of new units, and that relies on cryptography to prevent counterfeiting and fraudulent transactions.

Blockchain (n): a digital database containing information (such as records of financial transactions) that can be simultaneously used and shared within a large decentralized, publicly accessible network; also: the technology used to create such a database.

Initial Coin Offering:  the first sale of a cryptocurrency to the public conducted for the purpose of raising funds (as to support a start-up)

The adding up of crypto-related words are highly notable, The popular term Bitcoin was added two years back to the wordbook.  The dictionary has not yet made available the list of all new words and their phrases, although, many crypto-words like “Mining” and “HODL” are not introduced in the recent update.