Rohit Bhargava and Henry Coutinho-Mason
Future Words
A non-obvious glossary of terms that don’t exist (but soon will). This book is for word lovers, trend spotters, and anyone who has ever wished for a word that didn’t quite exist.
Explore The Words
Future Words Projects
The Poetry Prize
Pick one of the 100 coined words and write an original poem inspired by it.
The Unwondering Project
A curated collection of real-world places to visit and rediscover your sense of wonder.
The Subscreep Game
Details coming soon.
One Word At A Time
Which future word
are you living?
Press the button and discover a new word from the future.
The ache for a memory that was AI-generated and never actually lived through.
The app generated a video of Grandpa laughing, stirring fauxstalgia for his grandkids who never got to meet him.
Twelve Teaser Words
Words we will need
sooner than you think.
Relationships, identity, technology, travel, leisure, parenting, work, money, health, and (our favorite chapter) future insults.
Algonesia(n.)
The inability to remember whether you discovered something yourself or were served it by an algorithm.
Angorithm(n.)
An algorithm engineered to convert your outrage into engagement, learning exactly which furies keep you scrolling.
Fauxstalgia(n.)
The ache for a memory that was AI-generated and never actually lived through.
Skyburb(n.)
An outlying location transformed into prime real estate by the arrival of aerial transportation options and convenient drone delivery.
Ladderdodging(n.)
Declining or choosing not to seek out a promotion or high-level role in order to avoid the added pressure, risk, and loneliness that often comes with management positions.
Glitchenfreude(n.)
The vindicated delight of watching supposedly godlike technology fail in public.
Futuresplaining(n. / v.)
The act of (over)confidently narrating a future you haven’t tested or researched, often with slides.
Hoverwhelmed(adj.)
Caught between tracking your child responsibly and becoming obsessed with the flood of real-time parenting data.
Botique(n.)
A retail or service experience that is entirely automated, yet still sold as luxurious, personalized, and premium.
Paydaze(n.)
The disorientation of earning from multiple sources and being paid on no set schedule.
Sportling(n.)
A simpler, faster spin-off of a demanding sport, designed to be easier to play or watch.
Veritax(n.)
The cognitive cost of having to constantly verify the authenticity of everything you see and hear.
Inside The Book
Take a look inside.
A few spreads from the book: every word gets its definition, a usage example, and the coinage notes behind it.
Why This Book
“When the world changes faster than our language, we make new words.”
Language has never sat still. Words such as serendipity and cyberspace began as inventions: writers reaching for something no existing word could hold.
Future Words names the emerging tensions already reshaping relationships, identity, work, money, health, technology, leisure, parenting and travel. Smart enough to provoke. Playful enough to give to the logophile in your life.
The Authors
Meet the wordmakers.
Rohit Bhargava
Washington DCRohit Bhargava is on a mission to inspire more non-obvious thinking in the world. He is the #1 WSJ and USA Today bestselling author of eleven books, founder of the Non-Obvious Company and an adjunct professor of storytelling at Georgetown University. Rohit has been invited as a “non-boring” keynote speaker to events in 32 countries. He is also a frequent contributor to multiple publications including INC, GQ Brasil and Entrepreneur magazines.
Henry Coutinho-Mason
LondonAuthor of two previous award-winning books on future trends – The Future Normal: How We Will Live, Work & Thrive In The Next Decade, which launched as a featured keynote at SXSW; and Trend-Driven Innovation. Henry is also the creator of the multiplayer interactive keynote, VisuAIse Futures. As a global keynote speaker, Henry has given more than 150 inspiring and actionable keynotes and workshops in 30+ countries; he is a guest lecturer at HEC business school in Paris.
As co-founder of 3Space, Henry is also an award-winning social entrepreneur. 3Space’s innovative solution to urban regeneration was commended in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas.
Fun fact: Henry was featured in GQ’s Most Connected Men in Britain list.
Together, they previously wrote the global bestseller The Future Normal, correctly anticipating 30 shifts shaping how we work, live, and play.
Every Glossary Needs One
About our editor.
Jess Zafarris
Editor · Author · EtymologistJess Zafarris is the author of several books on word origins, including Once Upon a Word (Rockridge Press, 2020), Words from Hell (Chambers, 2023), Useless Etymology (Chambers, 2025), and Into the Words (Chambers, 2026). She has also authored and co-authored several works on general fun facts and tabletop gaming, and she served as a guest editor and contributor for the word game The League of the Lexicon.
She is a longtime video content creator who has built a devoted social media following on TikTok and Instagram, and she co-hosts the popular YouTube podcast Words Unravelled with Rob Watts, a.k.a. RobWords. She has been a featured speaker, panelist, and emcee at events including SXSW EDU, the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference, and Rising Phoenix, and she teaches writing- and author-centric courses for a range of universities and online platforms. Her blog, UselessEtymology.com, has been educating curious word lovers for more than a decade.
The Details
A future classic,
sized for the present.
Out Nov 10, 2026
Pre-order from your
favorite bookseller.
Get An Advance Look At The Book
Join the Future Words
book launch team.
Get a preview of the book, more backstories behind the coinages, some lost words from our research, and more occasional linguistic mischief.
