200+ Portmanteau Examples With Blended Word Origins

A portmanteau is a type of word formation in which parts of two words are clipped and blended into one new word, as breakfast and lunch merge into brunch. Most portmanteau examples in daily English, such as smog, motel, and spork, name meals, weather, and objects that people mention every day.

What Is a Portmanteau?

A portmanteau, also called a blend word, fuses the sounds and meanings of two existing words while dropping part of at least one of them, so smoke and fog shrink into smog. A compound word such as sunflower or toothbrush keeps both words whole, while a portmanteau trims and fuses them.

We checked out of the motel at ten and met our cousins for brunch by eleven.

Common Portmanteau Examples in Sentences

Brunch, smog, motel, and spork are the textbook portmanteau examples, each blending two familiar words into one shorter word that English speakers use without a second thought.

• Our family meets for brunch at Grandma’s house every Sunday at eleven. (breakfast + lunch)
• A thick layer of smog hid the city skyline all afternoon. (smoke + fog)
• After fourteen hours on the highway, the truck driver pulled into a roadside motel. (motor + hotel)
• Nobody at the picnic packed a spork, so we ate the potato salad with our fingers. (spoon + fork)
• Skipping lunch always leaves Marco hangry by three o’clock. (hungry + angry)
• Is that a ginormous pumpkin or a small car in your garden? (gigantic + enormous)
• Give me a guesstimate of the guest count, and I’ll order the chairs. (guess + estimate)
• Mei and her frenemy from chemistry class compete for every prize at school. (friend + enemy)
• Once finals were over, Jordan told his roommates to chillax and order a pizza. (chill + relax)
• Dad filmed my first steps on a bulky camcorder back in 1998. (camera + recorder)
• Grandpa’s old moped never starts on cold mornings. (motor + pedal)
• Instead of flying abroad, the Nguyens took a staycation and toured their own city’s museums. (stay + vacation)
• The two lead actors’ off-screen bromance became a running joke on late-night talk shows. (bro + romance)
• A smiling emoticon at the end of Ana’s text told me she was joking. (emotion + icon)
• Hundreds of volunteers answered phones during the charity telethon last night. (television + marathon)
• High-speed trains through the Chunnel link London and Paris in under two and a half hours. (Channel + tunnel)
• My cousins in Miami switch languages mid-sentence and speak Spanglish at every family dinner. (Spanish + English)
• Rosa calls herself a chocoholic and hides candy bars in her desk drawer. (chocolate + alcoholic)
• We went glamping in a tent with a real bed, fairy lights, and an electric heater. (glamorous + camping)
• Every Friday, Tasha uploads a travel vlog from a different city. (video + blog)
• Were you listening to that true-crime podcast on the drive home? (iPod + broadcast)
• More than three hundred teachers signed up for the free webinar on classroom technology. (web + seminar)
• Lily wore a pleated skort to tennis practice for a full two hours of drills. (skirt + shorts)
• The Brexit vote in June 2016 divided families and friends across Britain. (Britain + exit)
• Don’t turn into a workaholic who answers emails at the beach, Mom warned. (work + alcoholic)

Food and Drink Portmanteau Examples

Chefs, bakers, and menu writers blend words all the time, which is how turducken, mocktails, and the tangelo reached our plates and glasses.

• Uncle Ray roasts a turducken every Thanksgiving, and it takes him most of the morning. (turkey + duck + chicken)
• Since Priya doesn’t drink alcohol, the bartender mixed her a fruity mocktail with mint and lime. (mock + cocktail)
• A tangelo tastes sweeter than a grapefruit and peels more easily than an orange. (tangerine + pomelo)
• Our new neighbors call themselves flexitarians, eating mostly vegetables with fish on weekends. (flexible + vegetarian)
• The café by the station serves brunch until two, even on weekdays. (breakfast + lunch)
• Hikers pack a folding spork because it saves room in a crowded backpack. (spoon + fork)
• Critics of genetically modified crops call them Frankenfood in protest signs and headlines. (Frankenstein + food)
• Every Valentine’s Day, my little sister proves she is a true chocoholic. (chocolate + alcoholic)
• Why does a cheeseburger taste better at a baseball game than at home? (cheese + hamburger)
• After a morning of shopping, Lena was so hangry that she ordered two sandwiches. (hungry + angry)
• The hotel offers a brunch buffet with pancakes, omelets, and fresh fruit. (breakfast + lunch)
• On hot summer evenings, the kids line up at the corner shop for a cold Popsicle. (pop + icicle)
• A cold Frappuccino is Dev’s reward after every exam. (frappé + cappuccino)
• Few guests at the party noticed that the mocktail bar served no alcohol at all. (mock + cocktail)
• Grandpa bought a crate of juicy tangelos at the Florida farm stand. (tangerine + pomelo)
• My vegetarian cousin tried the flexitarian menu and ordered the grilled salmon. (flexible + vegetarian)

Technology and Internet Portmanteau Examples

Podcasts, pixels, and malware all got their names from blends, since engineers and early internet users needed short labels for brand-new inventions.

• A single pixel on my old laptop screen stays bright green no matter what I do. (picture + element)
• Before broadband arrived, our family connected to the internet through a noisy dial-up modem. (modulator + demodulator)
• The IT team warned staff that a fake invoice email carried malware. (malicious + software)
• Tomás hosts a weekly podcast about soccer with two friends from college. (iPod + broadcast)
• Our company’s sales webinar drew viewers from twelve countries. (web + seminar)
• She started her fashion blog in high school and now writes for a magazine. (web + log)
• Every morning, Kenji films a short vlog about his life as an exchange student. (video + blog)
• Good netiquette means not typing an entire message in capital letters. (net + etiquette)
• Thousands of netizens shared the video within an hour of its release. (net + citizen)
• In 1982, computer scientist Scott Fahlman proposed a colon, a hyphen, and a bracket as the first smiley emoticon. (emotion + icon)
• The science fiction film tells the story of a cyborg police officer with a human brain. (cybernetic + organism)
• Did your parents record your birthday parties on a camcorder too? (camera + recorder)
• Never click a link from a stranger, because one wrong click installs malware in seconds. (malicious + software)
• Grandma learned to join a webinar so she takes a painting class from home. (web + seminar)
• Each tiny pixel on a phone screen shows one color at a time. (picture + element)
• The online forum’s rules on netiquette ban spam and personal insults. (net + etiquette)
• A popular podcast on history turned into a best-selling book last year. (iPod + broadcast)
• Before email, businesses sent urgent messages by telex over a network of teleprinters. (teleprinter + exchange)

Fashion and Lifestyle Portmanteau Examples

Jeggings, skorts, and athleisure show how clothing designers name hybrid garments, while glamping and staycations name new ways to spend a holiday.

• Maya pulled on her favorite jeggings because they look like denim but stretch like leggings. (jeans + leggings)
• The athleisure trend means half the people at the café wear yoga pants to brunch. (athletic + leisure)
• Every summer, Dad digs out the same faded pair of jorts for the family barbecue. (jeans + shorts)
• Our school’s tennis uniform comes with a navy skort instead of a skirt. (skirt + shorts)
• Leo’s barber gave him a fauxhawk, with the sides left long and the top spiked up. (faux + mohawk)
• Rather than sleeping on the ground, Aisha booked a glamping trip with a hot tub and a chef. (glamorous + camping)
• With money tight this year, we planned a staycation of picnics, museums, and movie nights. (stay + vacation)
• My sister is a hopeless shopaholic. (shop + alcoholic)
• Were those jeggings or real jeans that the singer wore on stage? (jeans + leggings)
• Office workers now wear athleisure on casual Fridays without a second glance from the boss. (athletic + leisure)
• A staycation gave the exhausted nurse a week of sleep, books, and long walks by the river. (stay + vacation)
• None of the campers at the glamping site had to pitch a tent or cook over a fire. (glamorous + camping)
• The bromance between the two roommates started over a shared love of old video games. (bro + romance)
• For cosplay events at the comic convention, Hana sews every costume by hand. (costume + play)

Business and Brand Name Portmanteau Examples

Stagflation, crowdsourcing, and brand names such as Microsoft and Velcro prove that economists and company founders coin blends just as eagerly as poets do.

Business Portmanteau Words

Economists and marketers built stagflation, advertorial, and crowdsourcing from existing words to name trends that had no single word before.

• Rising prices and falling growth pushed the country into stagflation in the 1970s. (stagnation + inflation)
• The magazine’s glossy advertorial looked like a real story but was paid for by a skincare brand. (advertisement + editorial)
• Last year, the startup used crowdsourcing to collect ten thousand logo designs from its customers. (crowd + outsourcing)
• A late-night infomercial convinced my uncle to buy a knife set he never uses. (info + commercial)
• Shoppers are angry about shrinkflation, as the same price now buys a smaller bag of chips. (shrink + inflation)
• The toy company’s new edutainment app teaches fractions through a pirate treasure hunt. (education + entertainment)
• Sales teams now pitch clients through a webinar instead of a flight across the country. (web + seminar)
• My boss wants a rough guesstimate by Friday. (guess + estimate)
• Did the finance minister really blame stagflation for the delayed budget? (stagnation + inflation)
• Nobody in the meeting wanted to be the workaholic who replied to emails at midnight. (work + alcoholic)

Brand Names That Are Portmanteaus

Company names like Microsoft, Amtrak, and Velcro began as blends of two words, a trick that gives a new brand a short, catchy name.

• Bill Gates and Paul Allen named Microsoft after the software they wrote for small computers. (microcomputer + software)
• We took an Amtrak train to Washington. (American + track)
• Toddlers love shoes with Velcro straps because they need no laces at all. (French velours + crochet)
• Our phone bill from Verizon arrived with a surprise charge this month. (Latin veritas + horizon)
• A creamy wedge of Cambozola blends French Camembert with Italian Gorgonzola. (Camembert + Gorgonzola)
• Grandpa still wears the Timex watch he got when he retired from the railroad. (Time + Kleenex)
• Garmin founders Gary Burrell and Min Kao joined their first names to create Garmin. (Gary + Min)
• Children around the world trade Pokémon cards on the school playground. (pocket + monsters)
• Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz named their TV studio Desilu after themselves. (Desi + Lucille)
• Frank Epperson of Oakland, California, gave the Popsicle its trademark name in the 1920s. (pop + icicle)

Portmanteau Examples in Politics and News

Brexit, gerrymander, and Reaganomics are the political blends journalists use most, since a single punchy word suits a headline better than a full phrase.

• Voters in Britain chose Brexit in a 2016 referendum, and the country left the European Union in 2020. (Britain + exit)
• A voting district drawn in 1812 looked so much like a salamander that critics coined gerrymander. (Elbridge Gerry + salamander)
• Tax cuts and lower government spending were the heart of Reaganomics in the 1980s. (Reagan + economics)
• Millions of Americans over sixty-five get health coverage through Medicare. (medical + care)
• British tabloids used Megxit for the 2020 decision by Prince Harry and Meghan to step back from royal duties. (Meghan + Brexit)
• Millions of low-income families rely on Medicaid for doctor visits and hospital care. (medical + aid)
• Critics accused the ruling party of gerrymandering the map to win extra seats. (Elbridge Gerry + salamander)
• Priya dreamed of an Oxbridge interview and practiced her answers for months. (Oxford + Cambridge)
• The talk show host blamed stagflation for the rising cost of groceries. (stagnation + inflation)
• Activists accused the oil company of trying to greenwash its image with ads full of forests. (green + whitewash)
• Didn’t the editorial call the new tariffs a sequel to Reaganomics? (Reagan + economics)
• A new telethon raised millions of dollars for families hit by the hurricane. (television + marathon)

Portmanteau Examples in Movies and TV

Sitcoms, docudramas, and mockumentaries all have blended genre names, and viewers know the style of show from the name alone.

• My brother’s favorite sitcom follows six friends who share apartments in New York. (situation + comedy)
• This Is Spinal Tap is a 1984 mockumentary about a fictional British rock band. (mock + documentary)
• The streaming service released a docudrama about the 1969 Moon landing. (documentary + drama)
• Critics called the show a dramedy because every funny episode ended with a tearful scene. (drama + comedy)
• Mumbai’s Bollywood studios release hundreds of Hindi films every year. (Bombay + Hollywood)
• Did you watch Bohemian Rhapsody, the 2018 biopic about Freddie Mercury? (biographical + picture)
• On Saturday mornings, Kofi watched a science edutainment show that turned chemistry into magic tricks. (education + entertainment)
• Lucy loves a cheesy rom-com on Fridays. (romantic + comedy)
• Late-night infomercials sell blenders, mops, and exercise machines to insomniacs. (info + commercial)
• The Office is a mockumentary filmed as if a camera crew followed the workers every day. (mock + documentary)
• A telethon for children’s hospitals kept the channel live for twenty-four hours. (television + marathon)
• Oppenheimer, a 2023 biopic, follows the physicist who led the atomic bomb project. (biographical + picture)

Science and Weather Portmanteau Examples

Scientists and weather reporters coined smog, quasar, and liger to name polluted air, distant galaxies, and hybrid animals in one short word.

Weather and Pollution Words

Smog over London, smaze over a valley town, and vog drifting from a Hawaiian volcano are all blends that describe dirty or hazy air.

• A London doctor, H. A. des Voeux, used the word smog in a 1905 paper on the city’s coal-smoke fogs. (smoke + fog)
• A brown smog settles over the valley on windless summer days. (smoke + fog)
• Are schools closing again because of the smog alert? (smoke + fog)
• Wildfire smoke mixed with morning mist to form a gray smaze over the town. (smoke + haze)
• Pilots at the regional airport delayed takeoff until the smaze lifted. (smoke + haze)
• Residents of the Big Island wear masks when vog from Kīlauea drifts over their towns. (volcanic + smog)
• The weather service issued a vog advisory for people with asthma. (volcanic + smog)
• Hikers near the crater smelled sulfur in the vog that hung over the trail all morning. (volcanic + smog)

Science and Technology Terms

Physicists, astronomers, and engineers blended words to name the positron, the quasar, and the endorphin.

• Carl Anderson discovered the positron, a particle with the mass of an electron but a positive charge, in 1932. (positive + electron)
• A quasar shines brighter than an entire galaxy of stars. (quasi-stellar)
• Radio astronomers first identified a quasar in the early 1960s. (quasi-stellar)
• Long runs release endorphins that leave Carla calm and happy for hours. (endogenous + morphine)
• Laughing with friends triggers the same endorphins as a good workout. (endogenous + morphine)
• In the novel, a cyborg with a metal arm guards an orbiting research station. (cybernetic + organism)
• Every walkie-talkie is a transceiver that both sends and receives radio signals. (transmitter + receiver)
• Inside a computer, each bit stores either a zero or a one. (binary + digit)

Animal Hybrid Names

Ligers, zonkeys, and labradoodles take their names from both parent animals, such as the lion and tiger behind the liger.

• A liger grows larger than both of its parents, a male lion and a female tiger. (lion + tiger)
• Unlike a liger, a tigon has a tiger father and a lioness mother. (tiger + lion)
• The striped legs of the zonkey at the wildlife park came from its zebra father. (zebra + donkey)
• Ranchers raise beefalo for lean meat. (beef + buffalo)
• Our labradoodle sheds so little that my allergic brother finally pets a dog without sneezing. (Labrador + poodle)
• Mrs. Ortiz walks her curly cockapoo past the school every afternoon. (cocker spaniel + poodle)
• Did you know a liger is the largest cat in the world? (lion + tiger)
• In the late 1980s, a dog-training program for blind people in Australia made the labradoodle famous. (Labrador + poodle)
• A zonkey has the gray body of a donkey and zebra stripes on its legs. (zebra + donkey)
• Children at the petting zoo giggled at the fluffy little cockapoo. (cocker spaniel + poodle)

Place Name Portmanteaus

Texarkana, Eurasia, and Tanzania are place names made from the names of neighboring states, continents, and countries, so each name reflects the regions it combines.

• The twin city of Texarkana straddles the border of Texas and Arkansas, close to Louisiana. (Texas + Arkansas + Louisiana)
• Eurasia is the single landmass made up of Europe and Asia. (Europe + Asia)
• In 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar united to form Tanzania. (Tanganyika + Zanzibar)
• Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg are known together as the Benelux countries. (Belgium + Netherlands + Luxembourg)
• On the American side of the border lies Calexico, and on the Mexican side lies Mexicali. (California + Mexico)
• Farmers ship produce from Mexicali to markets across Baja California. (Mexico + California)
• Beach towns on the Delmarva Peninsula fill with tourists every summer. (Delaware + Maryland + Virginia)
• Our class trip took the train through the Chunnel from Paris to London. (Channel + tunnel)
• The animated film Big Hero 6 takes place in San Fransokyo, a city mixing San Francisco and Tokyo. (San Francisco + Tokyo)
• Few travelers realize that Eurasia makes up more than a third of Earth’s land. (Europe + Asia)

Celebrity Couple Names

Brangelina, Bennifer, and TomKat are the best-known celebrity couple portmanteaus, coined by entertainment reporters who fused two famous first names into a single headline word.

• Tabloids called Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Brangelina after they met on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. (Brad + Angelina)
• In the early 2000s, magazines followed every move of Bennifer, the couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. (Ben + Jennifer)
• Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes became TomKat in the celebrity press after they started dating in 2005. (Tom + Katie)
• Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, known as Kimye, married in Florence in 2014. (Kim + Kanye)
• Fans of MTV’s The Hills nicknamed Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag Speidi. (Spencer + Heidi)
• Cricket fans in India call Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma Virushka. (Virat + Anushka)
• During the 1992 campaign, critics joked about Billary to suggest that Bill and Hillary Clinton ran as a team. (Bill + Hillary)
• Twilight fans called co-stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart Robsten. (Robert + Kristen)
• Few couple names trended as fast as Hiddleswift in the summer of 2016. (Hiddleston + Swift)
• When Bieber and Gomez reunited, fan accounts brought back the name Jelena overnight. (Justin + Selena)

Portmanteau Examples in Literature

Lewis Carroll named the portmanteau word in 1871 and coined chortle and galumph, and George Orwell later built whole government names such as Minitrue from clipped and fused words.

Lewis Carroll’s Coinages in "Jabberwocky"

Slithy, mimsy, chortle, and galumph come from "Jabberwocky," the nonsense poem in Through the Looking-Glass (1871), where Humpty Dumpty compares such words to a suitcase with two meanings packed inside.

• The first stanza of "Jabberwocky" describes slithy toves, and Humpty Dumpty later tells Alice the word means lithe and slimy. (lithe + slimy)
• Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice that mimsy means flimsy and miserable. (flimsy + miserable)
• After his son slays the Jabberwock, the proud father chortles with joy. (chuckle + snort)
• Carrying the monster’s head, the young hero goes galumphing back home. (gallop + triumphant)
• Early in the poem, a father warns his son to shun the frumious Bandersnatch. (fuming + furious)
• Carroll explained frumious in his preface to The Hunting of the Snark in 1876. (fuming + furious)
• Humpty Dumpty compares slithy to a portmanteau, a traveling bag that opens into two halves. (lithe + slimy)
• Most people who chortle at a joke have no idea Lewis Carroll invented the word. (chuckle + snort)
• A puppy galumphing across the lawn moves with heavy, clumsy steps. (gallop + triumphant)
• In chapter six of Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty explains mimsy to Alice. (flimsy + miserable)
• Our teacher read the poem aloud and asked us to draw the mimsy borogoves. (flimsy + miserable)
• In a letter to a young reader, Carroll guessed that burble mixed bleat, murmur, and warble. (bleat + murmur + warble)
• Etymologists note that smog was coined in 1905 on Lewis Carroll’s model. (smoke + fog)

Newspeak Blends in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four

Minitrue, Miniluv, and Ingsoc are the clipped Newspeak names in George Orwell’s 1949 novel, where the Party shortens words so that people stop thinking about their meaning.

• Winston Smith rewrites old newspapers at Minitrue, the Ministry of Truth, in Nineteen Eighty-Four. (Ministry + truth)
• The Ministry of Peace, or Minipax, runs Oceania’s endless war. (Ministry + pax, Latin for peace)
• Prisoners fear Miniluv, the Ministry of Love, where the Thought Police question and torture them. (Ministry + love)
• Shortages of food and razor blades come from Miniplenty, the Ministry of Plenty. (Ministry + plenty)
• English Socialism, the Party’s ideology, shrinks to Ingsoc in Newspeak. (English + socialism)
• Orwell’s appendix on Newspeak explains that a clipped word like Minitrue calls up fewer associations than the full name. (Ministry + truth)

Funny Portmanteau Examples

Hangry, fantabulous, and chillax get a laugh because the blend exaggerates a mood, and the listener hears both source words at once.

• Never talk to my dad before dinner, because he gets hangry and snaps at everyone. (hungry + angry)
• Grandma called my prom dress absolutely fantabulous. (fantastic + fabulous)
• Relax, dude, just chillax for a minute and let the pizza cool. (chill + relax)
• The dog knocked over a ginormous bowl of popcorn during the movie. (gigantic + enormous)
• Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams sang about being bootylicious in 2001. (booty + delicious)
• Is a guesstimate of "a lot" really good enough for the tax form? (guess + estimate)
• The coach’s famous bromance with his assistant ended when one of them moved to a rival team. (bro + romance)
• My frenemy complimented my haircut and then asked if I had done it myself. (friend + enemy)
• Protesters waved signs warning shoppers against Frankenfood tomatoes. (Frankenstein + food)
• Uncle Joe proudly wore his jorts to the wedding reception, and nobody has forgotten it. (jeans + shorts)
• A true shopaholic, Tia bought a third lamp for a room with no outlets. (shop + alcoholic)
• Nothing makes a chocoholic grumpier than an empty cookie jar. (chocolate + alcoholic)
• Our cat turns hangry at six sharp and knocks mugs off the counter until someone feeds her. (hungry + angry)
• Winning the office pie contest left Sam feeling fantabulous for a week. (fantastic + fabulous)

Portmanteau Examples for Kids and Students

Spork, liger, and brunch make friendly first examples for young readers, while older students meet gerrymander, stagflation, and positron in civics, economics, and science classes.

Portmanteau Examples for Kids

Sporks at lunch, ligers at the zoo, and Popsicles on a hot day give children short blends that they already know from home and school.

• I eat my noodles with a spork at school. (spoon + fork)
• The liger at the zoo is bigger than a lion! (lion + tiger)
• We had pancakes and eggs for brunch today. (breakfast + lunch)
• My sister wears a pink skort to gym class. (skirt + shorts)
• A cold Popsicle tastes great on a hot day. (pop + icicle)
• Mom added a winking emoticon to her text. (emotion + icon)
• Look at that ginormous snowman in the park! (gigantic + enormous)
• Our fluffy labradoodle loves to chase tennis balls. (Labrador + poodle)
• Do you see the gray smog over the big city? (smoke + fog)
• We stayed at a motel with a swimming pool on our road trip to the mountains. (motor + hotel)
• Dad ordered a cheeseburger with extra pickles. (cheese + hamburger)
• Before the school play began, Grandpa set up his old camcorder on a tripod. (camera + recorder)

Portmanteau Examples for Students

Students run into Oxbridge, docudrama, and gerrymander in essays and class reading, where a single blend replaces a whole phrase.

• In civics class, we studied how Elbridge Gerry, a Massachusetts governor, gave his name to gerrymandering in 1812. (Elbridge Gerry + salamander)
• Our economics teacher defined stagflation as high inflation with slow growth. (stagnation + inflation)
• For her physics project, Nadia explained how a positron differs from an electron. (positive + electron)
• The geography quiz asked us to name the largest countries in Eurasia. (Europe + Asia)
• Several of my classmates applied to Oxbridge universities for next fall. (Oxford + Cambridge)
• A docudrama about the Apollo 13 mission helped the class understand the rescue. (documentary + drama)
• Before the online class began, the teacher reviewed the rules of netiquette. (net + etiquette)
• Our French teacher banned Franglais words like "le weekend" during oral exams. (français + anglais)
• Linguistics students recorded bilingual speakers mixing languages in Spanglish. (Spanish + English)
• Why did the professor ask us for only a guesstimate of the answer? (guess + estimate)
• A free webinar on essay writing drew students from five different schools. (web + seminar)
• In English class, we found every portmanteau in "Jabberwocky," from slithy to galumphing. (Lewis Carroll’s term)

Recent Portmanteau Words

Megxit, covidiot, and Barbenheimer show how fast English still coins blends, since each one appeared in the 2020s to name a news event or a new habit.

• Collins Dictionary put Megxit on its 2020 words of the year shortlist. (Meghan + Brexit)
• During the 2020 lockdowns, people who ignored health advice were called covidiots. (Covid + idiot)
• Stuck at home that spring, Jen mixed a quarantini and joined her friends on a video call. (quarantine + martini)
• Weeks of wearing a face mask left Omar with a stubborn case of maskne. (mask + acne)
• Merriam-Webster added shrinkflation to its dictionary in 2022. (shrink + inflation)
• When Facebook renamed itself Meta in 2021, everyone started talking about the metaverse. (meta + universe)
• Barbie and Oppenheimer opened on the same day in July 2023, and fans called the double feature Barbenheimer. (Barbie + Oppenheimer)
• In 2013, the first day of Hanukkah fell on Thanksgiving, and families celebrated Thanksgivukkah. (Thanksgiving + Hanukkah)
• Money was tight after the 2008 recession, so the word staycation spread across American newspapers. (stay + vacation)
• Didn’t glossy travel magazines start writing about glamping only in the mid-2000s? (glamorous + camping)
• By 2009, stores were selling stretchy jeggings to shoppers who wanted denim that moved. (jeans + leggings)
• Wired writer Jeff Howe popularized crowdsourcing in 2006 for companies that gather suggestions from the public. (crowd + outsourcing)
• Shoppers noticed shrinkflation when a family-size bag of cereal lost two ounces overnight. (shrink + inflation)
• Nobody had heard of Barbenheimer until memes pairing pink dresses with atomic blasts spread online. (Barbie + Oppenheimer)

Related

• Figures of Speech with Examples
• Malapropism Examples
• Spoonerism Examples

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