Data center and unc were on the shortlist of words considered for the tribute.

Are you focusmaxxing today? Knowledgemaxxing? Maybe fibermaxxing? Dictionary.com has chosen “maxxing,” which can seemingly be attached as a suffix to any other English word, as its Word of the Year for 2026.

Dictionary.com defines maxxing as “the practice of pursuing an activity to the fullest or optimizing a certain aspect of your life.” It’s not a lot different from older expressions such as taking it to the max, maxing out a credit card or feeling maxed out. Words like max, maximum and maximize have their roots in the Latin maximus — meaning “greatest” or “largest.”

But maxxing takes it to another level. The word has an additional x and can be tacked onto the back of seemingly any word. Dictionary.com said that two of the most common of these in 2026 have been looksmaxxing and tokenmaxxing.

Looksmaxxing — maximizing one’s physical appearance — was the most popular internet search term in 2026 for derivations of maxxing, according to Dictionary.com. Certain internet content creators popularized the term and have gained large followings with their sometimes extreme approaches to improving their looks.

Tokenmaxxing is another frequently searched term. In the world of AI, token refers to a small bit of written text that AI language models process to formulate responses. The term tokenmaxxing generally refers to using AI as much as possible at work, as companies integrate AI more and more into workflows. It’s no joke: Some companies are tracking and evaluating their workers on how much and how effectively they use AI in their jobs.

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