word of the year

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Merriam-Webster Is Out With Its Word of the Year

It's 'polarization'

(Newser) - We've had " brat ," " demure ," " brain rot ," and " manifest ," as words of the year chosen by dictionaries, but because we can surely agree that we don't all agree, Merriam-Webster is now out with its 2024 word of the year: "polarization....

Oxford Reveals Its Word of the Year

It's 'brain rot'

(Newser) - Oxford is out with its 2024 word of the year, and it's a term that's appeared on other end-of-year lists: "brain rot," referencing what happens to one's brain when one mindlessly scrolls social media and other trivial online content. Oxford University Press, which publishes the...

Dictionary.com Is Out With Its 2024 Word of the Year

'Demure,' kids

(Newser) - OK, so "brat" is out and "demure" is going to rule in 2024. The latter has been named Dictionary.com's word of the year, with searches for the word seeing a "meteoric rise" of some 1,200% between January and August. As CNN reports, the spike...

'Brat' Has Had Quite a Year. It Just Got Better

It's Collins Dictionary's word of the year

(Newser) - "Characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude." That's one of the definitions of "brat" in the Collins Dictionary—a word that serves as both the title of UK singer Charli XCX's sixth studio album and, now, as Collins' word of the year, reports the...

Another Word of the Year Has Been Chosen
Oxford Picks Its
Word of the Year
Dec 4, 2023 1:00 AM CST

Oxford Picks Its Word of the Year

'Rizz'

(Newser) - Another word of the year has been chosen, and, bucking the trend for 2023, this one has nothing to do with artificial intelligence. Oxford University Press chose "rizz," which, as the BBC reports, is slang that the youngsters these days use to mean charm, style, or romantic appeal,...

2 More Words Chosen for 'Word of the Year'
Here's Merriam-Webster's
Word of the Year for 2023
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Dec 2, 2023 5:05 PM CST

Here's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2023

It goes with 'authentic,' while Cambridge Dictionary chooses 'hallucinate'

(Newser) - In an age of deepfakes and post-truth, as artificial intelligence rose and Elon Musk turned Twitter into X, the Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2023 is "authentic," the AP reports. Authentic cuisine. Authentic voice. Authentic self. Authenticity as artifice. Lookups for the word are routinely heavy on...

This Is Collins Dictionary's Word of the Year

'AI,' or, you know, 'artificial intelligence,' 'has been much talked about in 2023,' per UK publisher

(Newser) - The "best of 2023" lists are starting to be compiled, and Collins Dictionary lexicographers have already announced their pick for word of the year. It's "AI," the initialism for "artificial intelligence," reports CNN , which notes the term means "the modeling of human mental...

Oxford Dictionary Picks Its Word of the Year
Oxford Dictionary Picks
Its Word of the Year
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Dec 10, 2022 6:00 AM CST

Oxford Dictionary Picks Its Word of the Year

2022 was the time to go 'goblin mode'

(Newser) - The prestigious Oxford English Dictionary put this year's selection of its word of the year in the hands of voters for the first time, and it wasn't a close fight. "Goblin mode" won in a landslide, reports the BBC . For those unfamiliar, the dictionary defines the term...

Merriam-Webster Chooses Its Word of the Year
Merriam-Webster
Chooses Its
Word of the Year
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Dec 3, 2022 4:45 PM CST

Merriam-Webster Chooses Its Word of the Year

It's 'gaslighting'

(Newser) - “Gaslighting”—mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful—is Merriam-Webster's word of the year, the AP reports. Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn't a single event that drove significant spikes in...

Dictionary's Word of the Year Angered Wordle Players

British players weren't familiar with 'homer'

(Newser) - The Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year is one that infuriated British players of Wordle who knew it only as the name of an ancient Greek poet—or Bart Simpson's dad. The dictionary says "homer" saw the biggest search spike of the year, with some 79,000...

Dictionary.com's Word of the Year Isn't About COVID

Site goes with 'allyship'

(Newser) - Allyship, an old noun made new again, is Dictionary.com's word of the year. The lookup site with 70 million monthly users took the unusual step of anointing a word it added just last month, though “allyship” first surfaced in the mid-1800s, said Associate Director of Content &...

This Is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year

'Vaccine' wins out for 2021

(Newser) - With an expanded definition to reflect the times, Merriam-Webster has declared an omnipresent truth as its 2021 word of the year: vaccine. “This was a word that was extremely high in our data every single day in 2021,” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor-at-large, told the AP ahead of...

Usage of Collins' Word of the Year Jumped 11,000%

Dictionary chooses 'NFT' over 'metaverse'

(Newser) - We've moved on from "lockdown" to the year of the "NFT." Use of the abbreviation for "nonfungible token" jumped more than 11,000% this year, propelling it to the title of Collins Dictionary's word of the year, per the BBC . NFT—defined by Collins...

Oxford's Word of the Year Is an 'Attention-Grabbing' One

'No word better captures the atmosphere of the past year than vax'

(Newser) - If you never want to hear anything about the pandemic ever again, there's one word you'll have to endure for at least another 15 minutes as it enjoys another moment in the sun. Oxford Languages has deemed "vax" its word of the year, with senior editor Fiona...

Merriam-Webster Settles on 2020 Word of the Year

'Pandemic'

(Newser) - Last year, Merriam-Webster picked "they" as its word of the year. In 2020, people had other things on their minds. The dictionary announced Monday that "pandemic" is the new word of the year. One stat explains why: Lookups of the word on the dictionary's website spiked 115,...

2020 'Left Us Speechless.' The Word of the Year Reflects That

Oxford simply couldn't pick just one

(Newser) - In 2019, Oxford Languages' word (or term, rather) of the year was "climate emergency." In 2020, however, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary ran into a conundrum : It soon realized that this year has been like no other, and one that simply couldn't be summed up...

One Word of the Year Is Depressingly 2020

'Lockdown' usage up 6K% from 2019: Collins Dictionary

(Newser) - In 2019, there were just 4,000 recorded instances in which the word "lockdown" was used, according to the Collins Dictionary. Of course, we had no idea what was coming. This year, there were more than 250,000 uses for a 6,000% increase, Collins says. It was enough...

Cartoon 'Spork' Helped Drive Dictionary's Word of the Year

Forky from 'Toy Story 4' understands 'existential' better than many of us, per Dictionary.com

(Newser) - Climate change, gun violence, the very nature of democracy, and an angsty little movie star called Forky helped propel "existential" to Dictionary.com's word of the year. The choice reflects months of high-stakes threats and crises, real and pondered, across the news and the world, and throughout 2019....

Merriam-Webster Picks Its Word of the Year

'Justice'

(Newser) - The word of the year, at least in the eyes of Merriam-Webster? "Justice." The dictionary's editor at large tells the AP that M-W isn't "editorializing"—the pick is made largely on a spike in people looking it up throughout the year on the dictionary'...

Another Year, Another Depressing Word to Define It

Hello, misinformation

(Newser) - "Misinformation," as opposed to "disinformation," was chosen Monday as Dictionary.com's word of the year on the tattered coattails of "toxic," picked earlier this month for the same honor by Oxford Dictionaries. Jane Solomon, a linguist-in-residence at Dictionary.com, says that her site'...

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