Once a month, we pick out a few words submitted by you for consideration in the Macquarie Dictionary. We’re looking for anything new, quirky, out of

One of the most difficult questions to answer, particularly when working for the Macquarie Dictionary, is “What is your favourite word?”. The answer can change depending on your mood, on the time of day, on the event or upcoming events, on any little thing, but there are usually one or two ‘go-to’ words that will always please.

A lamington is an Australian culinary treat essentially consisting of sponge cake pieces dipped in runny chocolate and then rolled in desiccated coconut. And while this

Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here. This week we look at you’ll do. 

Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here. This week we look at westie. 

There are a number of colloquial definitions for shocker in the Macquarie Dictionary. Of course, we are referring to something dreadfully bad. Here in Australia,

We have all had a parent refer to a doodad, thingummyjig, do-hickey or dooverlackie. But the most common replacement word for thing in the Australian

The word eggcorn was coined in 2003 by British-American linguist, Geoffrey Pullum, born 1945, from such a substitution of eggcorn for acorn, taken as a type. 

Dinkum appears earliest in the phrase fair dinkum (1890 in Australia, but 1881 in Britain), and not as a separate word until 1905. It originates in the British

There are a lot of different meanings for the word go. At the moment of writing, there are 127 in the Macquarie Dictionary Online alone!

Here in Australia (and in most of the English-speaking world), there are two separate meanings for narc and nark. The former is an abbreviation of

To pike is a colloquialism unique to Australia, meaning to ‘go quickly’. And a piker is the type of person who would opt out of an

Some of the biggest debates in our fair nation revolve around different ways we refer to classic foods. Take, for example, the humble sausage sandwich, or sausage

In Newtown, Sydney, there is a sign near the train station that reads ‘the land of the Cadigal people of the Eora nation’. In Stanmore,

Here in Australia, we have always taken up words and expressions from other English-speaking parts of the world.

Beautiful words are in the eye of the beholder. We’ve taken some suggestions and put together a few more words that we think evoke a