Concept creep

Concept creep is when a word that used to have a narrow meaning starts to get used for lots of different things that are kind of related, but not exactly the same.

Imagine you have a special word, like "banana," that you use for a very specific thing - a yellow fruit that grows on trees. But then one day, you start using that same word to describe things that aren't exactly bananas, but are kind of like bananas. Maybe you use the word to describe other fruits that are yellow, or things that are sort of shaped like bananas.

That's a bit like what happens with concept creep. Words that used to mean one specific thing start to get used to describe broader and more vague ideas. For example, the word "bullying" used to mean when someone was intentionally being mean or cruel to someone else. But over time, people started using the word "bullying" to describe things like unintentional teasing or even just someone disagreeing with them online.

So concept creep is when words start to mean more and more things over time. That can be confusing, because it means that a word might not mean exactly what you think it does anymore. But it also means that our language is constantly evolving and changing to reflect new ideas and experiences.