Five New Words You should Know in Business

The business world has always had an influence on language, ranging from contributions like best practices and bandwidth, and this new words update highlights several words entering OxfordDictionaries.com from the languages of business, corporate, and marketing.

1. solopreneur

As you might be able to guess, solopreneur refers to a ‘person who sets up and runs a business on their own’, covering a variety of duties. The combining form -preneur has become a productive one in recent years, with words like technopreneur and intrapreneur finding their way into the mainstream. Another related new word is owner-manager, referring to someone who both owns and manages their own business.

2. owner-driver

With ride-sharing apps Uber and Lyft becoming more and more popular, it’s probably not a surprise to see the term owner-driver – which refers to a person who owns the vehicle that they operate for their job – on the rise.

3. onboarding

This term refers to the ‘action or process of integrating a new employee into an organization or familiarizing a new customer or client with one’s products or services’. The word is derived from the sense of ‘on-board’ referring to being physically on a ship, plane, or spacecraft. The word is also used as a modifier, as in the ‘onboarding process’.

4. omnichannel

The adjective omnichannel is used to refer to ‘a type of retail which integrates the different methods of shopping available to consumers, e.g. online, in a physical shop, or by phone. The word comes from the combination of omni- (‘all’) and channel. A similar term with a different meaning is multichannel, which refers to something that ‘employs or possesses many television or communications channels’.

5. data-driven

With more and more data piling up every day on seemingly all aspects of our lives, a lot more than just business decisions are becoming data-driven, which refers to something ‘determined or dependent on the collection or analysis of data’. From online dating to journalism to dictionaries, data-driven activities are becoming more and more prevalent.