Merriam-Webster Sparks Soccer Turf War With Single Tweet, and Fans Had Strong Opinions

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s social media team woke up on Friday and chose violence.

It took just one simple tweet regarding the soccer vs. football debate to cause an uproar on X, formerly known as Twitter.

While most Americans call the sport “soccer,” the British population has held its ground that the sport is called “football.” On top of this, Americans are often made fun of for calling it soccer.

Merriam-Webster added to this ongoing conversation by posting: “‘Soccer’ was originally British slang for ‘association football.’”

The dictionary’s account added that, “Earlier versions of ‘soccer’ are the similarly slangy ‘socca’ and ‘socker,’ as well as ‘footer,’ cut from ‘(association) football.’”

Soccer fans couldn’t help but be ecstatic about this fact that seemingly was unknown to the general population beforehand. 

Take a look at some of the best social media reactions to this news, including from the Major Soccer League and the United States Men’s National Team.