namehawk

How to find available .com domains in word-of-the-year lists

Updated · Edited and reviewed by the NameHawk editor before publishing. How we make these guides

Each year, dictionaries pick a word of the year and publish shortlists of runners-up. Lexicographers have already done the hard part: judging which new words are real and significant.

The winner gets the attention, and its .com. The shortlists and older years' lists get far less, and that's where to look.

Where to look

Why this works

These lists are the only source here with professional curation: lexicographers with usage data decide what counts as significant. That makes them reliable, and it also means the obvious opportunities are gone within a day of publication.

The value is in what surrounds the winner. Shortlists run to ten or more words a year, per dictionary, and older lists are barely looked at once the news cycle passes.

Step by step

  1. 1

    Start with a round-up that collects every dictionary's picks, going back years.

  2. 2

    Scan each publisher's own announcement for the shortlist and commentary.

  3. 3

    Skip the winners: expect them to be taken.

  4. 4

    Focus on runners-up and on phrases built on winning words.

  5. 5

    Check the .coms, and read the dictionary's explanation of each word.

What NameHawk found

A selection of the words NameHawk flagged as new on these pages when they were scanned on September 19, 2026. They are candidate words, not names confirmed available: that scan didn't check their .coms, and some are already registered. Scan the page yourself to see what's there today and which .coms are available now.

Wikipedia's Word of the year

  • enshittification
  • strollout
  • brainrot
  • hallucinate

Oxford Word of the Year

  • rizz
  • rage bait
  • goblin mode
  • aura farming
  • biohack

What makes a good find here

  • Shortlisted words that lost to a bigger story that year.
  • Two-word phrases on the lists ('goblin mode', 'rage bait').
  • Older years' runners-up that have kept their meaning.

What to watch out for

  • Winners and famous runners-up are registered fast.
  • Some picks are tied to one year's news and fade.
  • Several publishers block automated fetching; use the extension for those.

Check trademarks before you register

  • Search the exact word in USPTO Trademark Search for US marks, and in the WIPO Global Brand Database for international and other national registers.
  • A trademark holder can challenge a domain it sees as an abusive registration under ICANN's Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), a fast administrative process run by approved providers. See ICANN's UDRP page.
  • NameHawk can't tell you whether a word is protected. It only demotes words written like names. Ask a trademark lawyer before you build on a name that matters to you.

Common questions

Is there any point looking at old lists?
Yes. Words that were shortlisted years ago and have since settled into normal use are often still available in some form, and they've proven they last.
Which dictionary should I follow?
All of them; they rarely agree. A round-up page covers every publisher at once.

The other nine methods

Scan a page for new words