In an appearance on ETV's "Terevisioon" morning show on Tuesday, Langemets said that the Estonian language gains some 2,000 new words each year – and that it's not words that had previously been left out of the dictionary that they're counting among them.

"But rather words that bring with them new content, a new thing, a new concept," she explained. "That is how we count 'new' words."

Among these new words are quite a few calques or loan translations, i.e. direct, word-for-word translations from English, for example – and according to Langemets, this is an absolutely normal phenomenon.

"Estonian will still end up exerting its influence on these words," the lexicographer explained. "It will start adapting them, adapting their pronunciation, reconciling how they are declined and conjugated. This is standard of the movement of words."

Each year, the nationwide neologism competition Sõnaus (link in Estonian) also strives to coin new, Estonian-language words and terms for things, including in conscious efforts to either forestall or supplant the use of loanwords or calques.

"There are quite a number that have been adopted into use, and alongside those are an even greater number of those that haven't gone into use," Langemets acknowledged. "I only just had a conversation with someone in aviation who said that they have fully embraced the word taristu ["infrastructure," coined to replace the loanword infrastruktuur]. It seemed strange to people at first, but it has taken off quite successfully."

Among the words chosen for inclusion in the 2025 edition of the ÕS is põssanka – borrowed from the Ukrainian pysanka to describe traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs made using the batik, or wax resist, method.

This comes a year after Ukraine and Estonia jointly submitted a proposal for the pysanky tradition to be included on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity – the decision on which is anticipated by the end of this year.

Another new entry to be included in the next edition of Estonia's standard dictionary is vana raha – a calque, or word-for-word translation, of the English-language term "old money."

"This has to do with wealth that has been inherited over many centuries," Langemets explained, adding that the term is also used in fashion in the context of "old money style" or aesthetic.

Unlike the previous two terms, another new expression that has been coined based on Estonian itself is krativäeline riik, or "AI-powered state," which is defined as state capable of utilizing artificial intelligence in a practical way.

Adopted into modern use to refer to AI, the word kratt originally denoted a magical creature in Estonian folklore, often made from hay or old household items before being brought to life after the master gave the Devil three drops of blood.

Kratts in the historic sense featured prominently in Rainer Sarnet's 2017 fantasy horror drama "November," which was based in turn on Andrus Kivirähk's 2000 novel "Rehepapp ehk November"; In its modern definition, kratts have been increasingly the focus of the Estonian state's AI strategies and action plans.

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