HuffPost spoke with UCLA sociolinguist Daria Bahtina about the 14,000 words and definitions Merriam-Webster recently incorporated into its dictionary. Bahtina said the clearest trend in the new list is how much vocabulary now documents digitally mediated life, but that there is also a thread including words that name experiences, relationships and social types. “We clearly enjoy having compact ways to recognize both who we are and the kinds of people and experiences around us,” she said. Read more about UCLA in today’s Time, CNN and others.

See our UCLA in the News daily archive. 

More highlights from UCLA in the News: September 23, 2026

UCLA is the nation’s No. 1 public university | KCBS-TV

UC Berkeley and UCLA both found their esteemed programs ranked No. 1 in the United States in the 2027 Top Public National Universities report. For UCLA, it was a return to the top after falling from the spot in last year’s poll. The school had previously been ranked No. 1 overall for eight consecutive years. (UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk was quoted. Also: Los Angeles Magazine.)

T. rex was a warm-blooded dinosaur, UCLA study suggests | CBC Radio

New research out of UCLA suggests the Tyrannosaurus rex was not as reptilian as scientists once thought.

A deep dive on mayoral power in Los Angeles | Spectrum News 1

“Inside the Issues” host Amrit Singh is joined by UCLA Blueprint editor-in-chief Jim Newton to discuss his new LA Material article on mayoral power in Los Angeles.

‘Racist By Design’ spotlights history of U.S. immigration laws | Culver City Crossroads

“This is my fourth book, and my first book party,” author Kelly Lytle Hernández told the crowd on Sunday, Sept. 19, 2026 at a pre-release celebration at the Wende Museum, co-sponsored by the Village Well … Hernández, a local resident whose academic career at UCLA has included a MacArthur Fellowship, holds the Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History.

The latest on the UN General Assembly meeting | CNN

“Well, under Iran’s constitution, under specifically article 110 of the Constitution, the president of Iran has no power really to make foreign policy decisions or decisions pertaining to matters or war and peace. That is purely up to the Supreme Leader,” said UCLA’s Benjamin Radd.

Trump’s summons to supporters lays bare his cynicism, hypocrisy | Los Angeles Times

As Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA’s School of Law, put it: “Trump framed his comments as though he were making a joke. But it’s a deadly serious thing to be joking about.”

Who should get a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease? | Time

“Published research suggests that a third of people who are cognitively intact above a certain age will show positive biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease, including on blood tests,” says Dr. Jason Hinman, professor of neurology and director of the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Care at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The strange reason you may suddenly feel dizzy | Time

It’s natural for these crystals to be in the ear. “They are part of your normal anatomy for your balance function,” says Dr. Gail Ishiyama, a professor in the departments of neurology and head and neck surgery and director of the Vestibular Clinical Laboratory at the UCLA School of Medicine. With [benign paroxysmal positional vertigo], “they’re just in the wrong place, and that can cause vertigo.”

Newsom signs laws to expand 4-year degrees at community colleges | Higher Ed Dive

A 2023 report from the UCLA Civil Rights Project found the two- and four-year systems don’t have much competition for the same students. “Concerns of program duplication in the higher education market are greatly exaggerated, since community colleges have continuously served different student communities than the CSUs and UCs, and can help address the undersupply of qualified workers in certain industries,” the report said.