Collins names 'mogging' its 2026 Word of the Year

Collins English Dictionary has named mogging its Word of the Year for 2026. To mog someone is to outshine or outperform them, a usage the dictionary describes as playful or ironic. The term began with looks but now covers almost anything, from a colleague's spreadsheet to a neighbour's barbecue, and has spawned sub-terms such as frame-mogging and jaw-mogging.

Mog is a shortened form of AMOG, meaning alpha male of the group, which surfaced in pickup-artist and manosphere forums in the early 2000s. By around 2016 the verb was appearing on male internet forums, and in the early 2020s it became core vocabulary of looksmaxxing, an online subculture focused on physical attractiveness.

The word gained wider attention this year after streamer Clavicular, a prominent looksmaxxing figure, posed for a photo with a fraternity leader. His followers said he had been badly frame-mogged. Olympic figure skating champion Alysa Liu also told reporters her competition approach was simply to mog.