Almost two months after the Nigerian Federal Government reaffirmed the superiority of the English Language over the indigenous language, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added about 22 words of African origin to its dictionary, some of which are from Nigerian indigenous languages. .
In a post on X, the OED announced that out of 279 new words added in the latest update, more than 20 originated from West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Togo.
Several of the newly added words reflect everyday language, food, music, and cultural expressions, with many capable of functioning as nouns, verbs or adverbs.
According to OED, the Nigerian word “abeg”, for instance, can be used as an interjection or adverb to express emotions such as surprise, disbelief, or exasperation.
Nigeria accounts for several of the new additions, including abeg, Afrobeats, Ghana Must Go, biko, mammy market, amala, nyash, and moi moi, while Ghanaian expressions such as kpanlogo, light soup, ampesi and abrokyire also feature prominently.
In 2025, Nigerian expressions including japa, 419, agbero, abi, area boy, yahoo boy, Naija, suya, kobo and cross-carpet were among those added to the dictionary.
The OED said the additions reflect the growing global influence of African languages, culture and popular expressions.
Full list of new West African words added to the OED (2026):
abeg, int. & adv.
- abrokyire, n.
- Adowa, n.
- Afrobeats, n.
- amala, n.
- ampesi, n.
- benachin, n.
- bichir, n.
- biko, adv. & int.
- domoda, n.
- dumboy, n.
- Ghana Must Go, n.
- hiplife, n.
- kpanlogo, n.
- light soup, n.
- mammy market, n.
- moi moi, n.
- nawetan, n.
- nyash, n.
- obroni, n. & adj.
- poda-poda, n.
- yassa, n.
