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The lists of Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year (for each year) are ten-word lists published annually by the American dictionary-publishing company Merriam-Webster, Inc., which feature the ten words of the year from the English language. These word lists started in 2003 and have been published at the end of each year. At first, Merriam-Webster determined its contents by analyzing page hits and popular searches on its website. Since 2006, the list has been determined by an online poll and by suggestions from visitors to the website.

The Words of the Year usually reflect events that happened during the years the lists were published. For example, the Word of the Year for 2005, 'integrity', showed that the general public had an immense interest in defining this word amid ethics scandals in the United States government, corporations, and sports. The Word of the Year for 2004, 'blog', was looked up on the Online Dictionary the most as blogs began to influence mainstream media. In 2006, Merriam-Webster received a lot of publicity as 'truthiness', a word coined by Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report, topped the list.

Selection process

When the Word of the Year was started in 2003, Merriam-Webster determined which words would appear on the list by analyzing page hits and popular searches to its website. For example, the 2003 and 2004 lists were determined by online hits to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Online Thesaurus and to Merriam-WebsterCollegiate.com. In 2006 and 2007, Merriam-Webster changed this practice, and the list was determined by an online poll among words that were suggested by visitors to the site. Visitors were requested to vote for one entry out of a list of twenty words and phrases. The list consisted of the words and phrases that were frequently looked up on the site and those that were submitted by many readers. From 2008 onwards, however, user submissions have not been a deciding factor, and the list has been composed only of the words which were looked up most frequently that year. Merriam-Webster said that the reason for the change was that otherwise ordinary words were receiving so many hits that their significance could not be ignored.

Words of the Year

Year	Word	Definition
2003	democracy	(noun) State governed by the people or by officials elected by the people.
2004	blog	(noun) Online journal where the writer presents a record of activities, thoughts, or beliefs.
2005	integrity	(noun) Adherence to moral or ethic principles; incorruptibility.
2006	truthiness	(noun) Truth coming from the gut, not books; preferring to believe what you wish to believe, rather than what is known to be true.
2007	w00t	(interjection) Expressing joy.
2008	bailout	(noun) A rescue from financial distress.
2009	admonish	(verb) to express warning or disapproval to especially in a gentle, earnest, or solicitous manner.
2010	austerity	(noun) Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline.
2011	pragmatic	(adjective) Practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory.
2012	socialism	(noun) Any of various economic and political philosophies that support social equality, collective decision-making, distribution of income based on contribution and public ownership of productive capital and natural resources, as advocated by socialists.
	capitalism	(noun) A socio-economic system based on private property rights, including the private ownership of resources or capital, with economic decisions made largely through the operation of a market unregulated by the state.
2013	science	(noun) Knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation.
2014	culture	(noun) The beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time.
2015	-ism	(suffix) A suffix that forms abstract nouns of action, state, condition, doctrine.
2016	surreal	(adjective) Marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream.
2017	feminism	(noun) The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.
2018	justice	(noun) The maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments.
2019	they	(pronoun) Used to refer to a single person whose gender is intentionally not revealed, or —Used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary.
2020	pandemic	(noun) An outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affects a significant proportion of the population.
2021	vaccine	(noun) A preparation that is administered (as by injection) to stimulate the body's immune response against a specific infectious agent or disease.
2022	gaslighting	(noun) A psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one's emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator

Full list by year

2003

Rank	Word	Definition
1	democracy
2	quagmire
3	quarantine
4	matrix
5	marriage
6	slog
7	gubernatorial
8	plagiarism
9	outage
10	batten

John Morse, president of Merriam-Webster, pointed out that "the most frequently looked up words are not the newest words, not the latest high-tech terms, not the cool new slang." Instead, these top ten words correlated to breaking news stories and world events in 2003. The top word democracy correlated to the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, quarantine to a SARS epidemic, and matrix to the film The Matrix Revolutions.

2004

Rank	Word	Definition
1	blog
2	incumbent
3	electoral
4	insurgent
5	hurricane
6	cicada	2004 emergence of Brood X cicadas.
7	peloton
8	partisan
9	sovereignty
10	defenestration

In 2004, blogs were becoming highly popular and began to influence mainstream media. During the twelve-month period that decides the word of the year, the term blog had the most requests for a definition or explanation, so a new entry was placed in Merriam-Webster's printed dictionary for 2005. The other words on this list, such as incumbent, electoral, and partisan, were associated with major news events, such as the United States presidential election of 2004 or natural disasters that hit the US.

2005

Rank	Word	Definition
1	integrity
2	refugee
3	contempt
4	filibuster
5	insipid
6	tsunami
7	pandemic
8	conclave
9	levee
10	inept

For 2005, integrity was the most looked-up word in Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary. According to John Morse, President of Merriam-Webster, the word integrity slowly moved up the list to first place in 2005 because ethics scandals emerged around the United States regarding corporations, government, and sports, such as the CIA leak investigations, scandals in Congress, and disgraced athletes.

Hurricane Katrina, the bird flu, and the death of Pope John Paul II renewed public interest in words such as refugee, tsunami, pandemic, conclave, and levee. The word refugee was also a candidate for the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year; according to Morse, the term gained notoriety as the entire country debated with how to describe people affected by Hurricane Katrina. The debate, over whether refugee was the proper term to describe displaced residents or whether the term was pejorative, summoned several Americans to look up the word in their dictionaries to form their own opinion. The word refugee received more queries in one month than most words in an entire year. The word insipid made the Top 10 list after Simon Cowell described Anthony Fedorov's performance in American Idol as "pleasant, safe, and a little insipid." At number 10 is inept, a word that received a lot of attention after the days when President George W. Bush delivered a live prime time news conference that came to an awkward end when some television networks cut him off to return to their regularly scheduled programs.

2006

Rank	Word	Definition
1	truthiness
2	google
3	decider
4	war
5	insurgent
6	terrorism
7	vendetta
8	sectarian
9	quagmire
10	corruption

After online visitors chose truthiness in a five-to-one majority vote as the Word of the Year of 2006, Merriam-Webster received a large amount of publicity. This was the first year in which Merriam-Webster used online voting to decide its Word of the Year. The term was created by Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central in The Colbert Report's first episode, which took place in October 2005, to describe things that he fervently believes to be the case regardless of the facts. In addition, truthiness became the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year for 2005.

2007

Rank	Word	Definition
1	w00t
2	Facebook
3	conundrum
4	quixotic
5	blamestorm
6	sardoodledom
7	apathetic
8	Pecksniffian
9	hypocrite
10	charlatan

John Morse, President of Merriam-Webster, said that the word w00t was a good choice because it "blends whimsy and new technology". Spelled with two zeros in leetspeak, w00t reflects a new direction in the English language led by a generation raised on video games and cell phone text messaging. While the word itself has not been published in its printed dictionary yet, Merriam-Webster claims that its presence in the Open Dictionary and the honors it's been awarded gives w00t a better chance at becoming an official word. It originally became popular in online gaming forums and is now used as an expression of excitement and joy. The word is also considered an acronym in the online gaming world for the phrase We owned the other team. This word was also used in the 1990 film Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts exclaimed "Woot, woot, woot!" to her date's friends during a polo match.

Placing second in 2007's contest, facebook created an unofficial verb out of the website Facebook. Founded in 2004, Facebook is a social network that allows its users to create a profile page and forge links with other friends and acquaintances.

2008

Rank	Word	Definition
1	bailout
2	vet
3	socialism
4	maverick
5	bipartisan
6	trepidation
7	precipice
8	rogue
9	misogyny
10	turmoil

2009

Rank	Word	Definition
1	admonish
2	emaciated
3	empathy
4	furlough
5	inaugurate
6	nugatory
7	pandemic
8	philanderer
9	repose
10	rogue

2010

Rank	Word	Definition
1	austerity
2	pragmatic
3	moratorium	2010 United States deepwater drilling moratorium
4	socialism
5	bigot
6	doppelganger	The host of Good Morning America called Elizabeth Gilbert "Julia Roberts' doppelganger".
7	shellacking	Barack Obama used shellacking to describe his party's losses in the US mid-term elections,
8	ebullient
9	dissident
10	furtive

Austerity was the most searched-for word of 2010. Interest in the word reached its highest point around May 1, the day the Greek government announced a series of austerity measures, but its popularity remained strong throughout the year. Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster editor-at-large, said: "Austerity clearly resonates with many people. We often hear it used in the context of government measures, but we also apply it to our own personal finances and what is sometimes called the new normal." Barack Obama used the word shellacking in November 2010, when acknowledging and lookups of ebullient peaked in October, as thirty-three Chilean miners were successfully rescued after 69 days trapped underground.

2011

Rank	Word	Definition
1	pragmatic
2	ambivalence
3	insidious
4	didactic
5	austerity
6	diversity
7	capitalism
8	socialism
9	vitriol
10	après moi le déluge	Used in a CNN article.

The word pragmatic was looked up on Merriam-Webster's website an unprecedented number of times in 2011. Although the popularity of the word wasn't linked to any specific event, it received the greatest amount of interest in the latter half of the year, as the United States Congress introduced the Budget Control Act, and its Supercommittee began to craft deficit-reduction plans. Ambivalence was also a popular word throughout the year; John Moore, President of Merriam-Webster, remarked: "We think it reflects the public attitude toward a wide range of issues, including the economy, the ongoing debates in Washington, the presidential election, and most recently the race for the Republican Party nomination." The term vitriol was used frequently in the wake of the January 2011 Tucson shooting, which led to a national debate about political rhetoric.

In November 2011, political commentator David Gergen rounded off a CNN article (entitled "Have they gone nuts in Washington?") with the phrase "après moi, le déluge". The expression, attributed to Louis XV, typifies the attitude of those who don't care about the future, because they won't be around to face the consequences of their actions.

2012

Rank	Word	Definition
1	socialism
	capitalism
2	touché	Disney introduced new technology called "Touché".
3	bigot
4	marriage
5	democracy
6	professionalism
7	globalization
8	malarkey
9	schadenfreude
10	meme

The popularity of many of the words on Merriam-Webster's 2012 list were influenced by the commentary and debate that surrounded that year's US presidential election. Socialism and capitalism were frequently referred to during the party conventions and the televised debates; interest in socialism spiked on the day of the election – November 6, 2012. The word malarkey was used several times by Joe Biden during his vice-presidential debate with Paul Ryan on October 11, and meme captured the public imagination after a remark made by Mitt Romney about "binders full of women", on October 16, went viral.

Touché remained a popular word throughout the year. This was partly as a result of a new technology of the same name being announced by Disney Research; however, John Morse, President of Merriam-Webster, suggested that touché was "simply a word enjoying a period of increased popular use, perhaps as a byproduct of the growing amount of verbal jousting in our culture, especially through social media".

2013

Rank	Word	Definition
1	science
2	cognitive
3	rapport
4	communication
5	niche
6	ethic
7	paradox
8	visceral
9	integrity
10	metaphor

The popularity of the word science in 2013 was driven by debates around climate change and science in education. Further debates around pseudoscience and whether science can answer all of life's questions further drove its popularity.

Cognitive's popularity was principally driven by ongoing issues with relation to concussion in American professional sports. The popularity of rapport and communication was principally driven by Edward Snowden's revelations around the NSA's global surveillance.

2014

Rank	Word	Explanation
1	culture
2	nostalgia
3	insidious
4	legacy
5	feminism
6	je ne sais quoi
7	innovation
8	surreptitious
9	autonomy
10	morbidity

2015

Rank	Word	Definition
1	-ism
2	socialism
3	fascism
4	racism
5	feminism
6	communism
7	capitalism
8	terrorism
9	marriage	Passage of Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage.
10	hypocrite	Josh Duggar was caught cheating.

The suffix -ism goes all the way back to Ancient Greek, and was used in Latin and medieval French on its way to English. Originally, it turned a verb into a noun: think of baptize and baptism, criticize and criticism, or plagiarize and plagiarism. It has since acquired many other uses, including identifying a religion or practice (Calvinism, vegetarianism), a prejudice based on a specific quality (sexism, ageism), an adherence to a system (stoicism, altruism), a condition based on excess of something (alcoholism), or a characteristic feature or trait (colloquialism).

2016

Rank	Word
1	surreal
2	revenant	Release of The Revenant.
3	icon	Following death of Prince.
4	in omnia paratus	Slogan related to Gilmore Girls.
5	bigly	Mishearing of "big league", used by Donald Trump.
6	deplorable	Hillary Clinton called supporters of Donald Trump a "basket of deplorables".
7	irregardless
8	assumpsit	Used in an anecdote by Joe Kennedy.
9	faute de mieux	Used by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in an abortion case.
10	feckless

2017

Rank	Word
1	feminism
2	complicit
3	recuse
4	empathy
5	dotard
6	syzygy	Used to describe solar eclipse of August 21, 2017.
7	gyro	Popularized by the SNL skit "I Don’t Know How to Pronounce Gyro."
8	federalism	Used by Lindsay Graham on a national health care bill.
9	hurricane
10	gaffe	Used to describe error in the 89th Academy Awards.

2018

Rank	Word
1	justice
2	nationalism	Used in speech by Donald Trump.
3	pansexual	Janelle Monáe came out as pansexual.
4	lodestar	Used in The New York Times article "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration".
5	epiphany
6	feckless	Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a "feckless cunt".
7	laurel	Used in the Yanny or Laurel illusion.
8	pissant	Used by a radio host to describe Tom Brady's daughter, to Brady's fury.
9	respect	Used after death of Aretha Franklin, a reference to her song "Respect".
10	maverick	Used after death of John McCain.
11	excelsior	Used after death of Stan Lee, his motto.

2019

Rank	Word	Definition
1	they
2	quid pro quo	Term surrounding Trump–Ukraine scandal.
3	impeach
4	crawdad	Release of Where the Crawdads Sing.
5	egregious	Used by pilot to describe flaw with the Boeing 737 MAX groundings.
6	clemency	Clemency was given to Cyntoia Brown in a viral case.
7	the	The Ohio State University tried to patent the word The.
8	snitty	Used by Attorney General William Barr to describe the Mueller Report.
9	tergiversation	Used in a Washington Post article. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-do-people-such-as-lindsey-graham-come-to-congress/2019/01/23/9830a174-1e68-11e9-8e21-59a09ff1e2a1_story.html]
10	camp	MOMA opened an art exhibit surrounding camp style.
11	exculpate	Used in Robert Mueller's testimony.

Searches for they increased by 313% in 2019 over 2018; the use of they to refer to one person whose gender identity is nonbinary was added to the Merriam-Webster.com dictionary in September 2019.  ; Merriam-Webster describes the word as "a child of the 1970s." On January 23, The Washington Post columnist George Will wrote, "During the government shutdown, Graham’s tergiversations—sorry, this is the precise word—have amazed." A fashion exhibit at The Met sparked interest in camp.

2020

Rank	Word	Definition
1	pandemic
2	Coronavirus
3	defund	Black Lives Matter's slogan "defund the police".
4	Mamba	Death of Kobe Bryant, nicknamed "Black Mamba".
5	Kraken	The Seattle Kraken joined the NHL.
6	quarantine
7	antebellum	Name change of Lady Antebellum and release of movie Antebellum.
8	schadenfreude	Surrounding Donald Trump getting COVID-19.
9	asymptomatic
10	irregardless
11	icon
12	malarkey

Pandemic, coronavirus, quarantine, and asymptomatic are all in reference to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the George Floyd protests of May 2020 and beyond, many , leading defund to have a 6,059% increase in lookups from 2019 to 2020; ensuing national conversations about references to the American Civil War led to the country music trio formerly known as Lady Antebellum changing their name to Lady A, ensuing a similar 885% increase in lookups. Mamba and kraken are both sports references, to "The Black Mamba" Kobe Bryant who died in January 2020 and the expansion National Hockey League franchise Seattle Kraken, respectively. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis Tweeted in July 2020 that Merriam-Webster had recently added irregardless, a double negative, to the dictionary, although the dictionary had entered it in 1934. A frequent entry in victorious US Presidential candidate Joe Biden's vocabulary, malarkey saw its second appearance in the top 10, the other being in 2012 during his re-election campaign for Vice President.

2021

Rank	Word	Explanation
1	vaccine
2	insurrection	January 6 insurrection.
3	perseverance	Deployment of Mars rover Perseverance.
4	woke
5	nomad	Nomination of "Nomadland" at the Oscars.
6	infrastructure
7	cicada	2021 emergence of Brood X cicadas.
8	murraya	Winning word of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
9	cisgender
10	guardian	Cleveland Indians changed their name to Cleveland Guardians.
11	meta	Facebook changed their name to Meta.

2022

Rank	Word
1	gaslighting
2	oligarch
3	omicron
4	codify
5	LGBTQIA
6	sentient	Used by Google engineer to describe the company’s AI chatbot.
7	loamy	Answer to a Wordle-like game.
8	raid	Used to describe FBI search of Mar-a-Lago.
9	queen consort

External links

• Merriam-Webster Online

Category:Lists of English words Category:Top lists