Germany's youth word of 2026 crowned at Frankfurt Book Fair

On Saturday 10 October 2026, during the public weekend of the 77th Frankfurter Buchmesse, publisher Langenscheidt announced Germany's annual Jugendwort des Jahres, or youth word of the year. The three frontrunners picked by a jury from more than 500,000 nominations submitted by people aged 10 to 20 were English imports: 'Crashout', meaning an uncontrolled emotional breakdown; 'Ragebait', content designed to provoke online fury; and 'Peak', used ironically to signal something embarrassing or dire. Euronews highlighted the dominance of anglicisms in the shortlist, continuing a multi-year trend that has displaced native coinages. The reveal took place on the Buchmesse stage, where this year's Guest of Honour is the Czech Republic and more than 230,000 visitors and 4,300 exhibitors are expected across the five-day run from 7 to 11 October. Public days opened Saturday from 09:00 to 18:30, with a family day ticket priced at 70 euros for two adults and three children. The youth word announcement is one of Germany's most-watched language events and traditionally fuels wide debate about digital culture, slang and the influence of English-language social media on German speech.