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Word of the year

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The word(s) of the year, sometimes capitalized as "Word(s) of the Year" and abbreviated "WOTY" (or "WotY"), refers to any of various assessments as to the most important word(s) or expression(s) in the public sphere during a specific year.

The German tradition, Wort des Jahres was started in 1971. The American Dialect Society's Word of the Year is the oldest English-language version, and the only one that is announced after the end of the calendar year, determined by a vote of independent linguists, and not tied to commercial interest.[citation needed] However, various other organizations also announce Words of the Year for a variety of purposes.

American Dialect Society

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Main article: List of American Dialect Society's Words of the Year

Since 1990, the American Dialect Society (ADS) has designated one or more words or terms to be the "Word of the Year" in the United States. In addition to the "Word of the Year", the society also selects words in other categories such as "Most Outrageous," "Most Creative," and "Most Likely to Succeed."

Year Word of the Year Notes
1990 bushlips
1991 mother of all –
1992 Not!
1993 information superhighway
1994 Tie: cyber and morph
1995 Tie: World Wide Web and newt
1996 mom Emergence of voting blocs like "soccer moms".
1997 millennium bug
1998 e-
1999 Y2K
2000 chad Cause of a recount in the 2000 US election
2001 9-11, 9/11 or September 11
2002 weapons of mass destruction or WMD
2003 metrosexual
2004 red/blue/purple states
2005 truthiness
2006 to be plutoed, to pluto
2007 subprime Subprime mortgage crisis that started in 2007
2008 bailout Bank bailout of 2008
2009 tweet
2010 app
2011 occupy
2012 #hashtag
2013 because
2014 #blacklivesmatter
2015 they
2016 dumpster fire
2017 fake news
2018 tender-age shelter
2019 (my) pronouns
2020 Covid
2021 insurrection
2022 -ussy
2023 enshittification

Australian National Dictionary Centre

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The Australian National Dictionary Centre has announced a Word of the Year each since 2006. The word is chosen by the editorial staff, and is selected on the basis of having come to some prominence in the Australian social and cultural landscape during the year.[1] The Word of the Year is often reported in the media as being Australia's word of the year,[2][3] but the word is not always an Australian word.

Year Word of the Year
2006 podcast
2007 me-tooism
2008 GFC
2009 Twitter
2010 vuvuzela
2011
2012 green-on-blue
2013 bitcoin[4]
2014 shirtfront[5]
2015 sharing economy
2016 democracy sausage
2017 Kwaussie
2018 Canberra bubble
2019 Voice
2020 iso
2021 strollout
2022 teal
2023 Matilda
2024 Colesworth[6]

Cambridge Dictionary

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The Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year, by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, has been published every year since 2015.[7] The word if chosen based on "user data, zeitgeist, and language."[8]

In 2024, Cambridge picked "manifest" as its Word of the Year. Traditionally, the word has been used as an adjective meaning "obvious", or as a verb meaning "to show something clearly through signs or actions". The word was chosen owing to its use by celebrities, particularly on social media, as a verb meaning "to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief doing so will make it more likely to happen".[9][10]

Year Word of the Year Note
2015 austerity
2016 paranoid Uncertainty surrounding global events.
2017 populism
2018 nomophobia
2019 upcycling
2020 quarantine[11] Worldwide lockdowns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 perseverance[12] Deployment of NASA Mars rover Perseverance, as well as societal recovery after COVID-19.
2022 homer The answer to a difficult Wordle puzzle.
2023 hallucinate[13] Referring to AI hallucinations: erroneous material generated by AI.
2024 manifest[10]

Collins English Dictionary

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The Collins English Dictionary has announced a Word of the Year every year since 2013, and prior to this, announced a new 'word of the month' each month in 2012. Published in Glasgow, UK, Collins English Dictionary has been publishing English dictionaries since 1819.[14]

Toward the end of each calendar year, Collins release a shortlist of notable words or those that have come to prominence in the previous 12 months. The shortlist typically comprises ten words, though in 2014 only four words were announced as the Word of the Year shortlist.

The Collins Words of the Year are selected by the Collins Dictionary team across Glasgow and London, consisting of lexicographers, editorial, marketing, and publicity staff, though previously the selection process has been open to the public.

Whilst the word is not required to be new to feature, the appearance of words in the list is often supported by usage statistics and cross-reference against Collins' extensive corpus to understand how language may have changed or developed in the previous year. The Collins Word of the Year is also not restricted to UK language usage, and words are often chosen that apply internationally as well, for example, fake news in 2017.[15]

Year Word of the Year Shortlist
2013[16] geek[17]
2014[18] photobomb[19]
2015[20] binge-watch[21]
2016[22] Brexit[23]
2017[24] fake news[25]
2018[26] single-use[27]
2019[28] climate strike[29]
2020[30] lockdown[31]
2021 NFT[32]
2022 permacrisis[33]
2023 AI[34]
2024 Brat[35]

Dictionary.com

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In 2010, Dictionary.com announced its first word of the year, 'change', and has done so in December every year since.[36] The selection is based on search trends on the site throughout the year and the news events that drive them.[37]

The following is the list of annual words since beginning with the first in 2010:[36]

Year Word of the Year
2010 change
2011 tergiversate
2012 bluster
2013 privacy
2014 exposure
2015 identity
2016 xenophobia
2017 complicit
2018 misinformation
2019 existential
2020 pandemic
2021 allyship
2022 woman
2023 hallucinate
2024 demure

Macquarie Dictionary

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The Macquarie Dictionary, which is the dictionary of Australian English, updates the online dictionary each year with new words, phrases, and definitions. These can be viewed on their website.[38]

Each year the editors review all new words and definitions that have been added to the dictionary in the past year from which they select a shortlist and invite the public to vote on their favourite. The public vote is held in November and results in the People's Choice winner. The most influential word of the year is also selected by the Word of the Year Committee which comprises the Editorial Team at Macquarie Dictionary along with David Astle and language research specialist Tiger Webb. The Committee meets annually to select the overall winning words.

The following is the list of winning words since the Macquarie Word of the Year first began in 2006:

Year Committee's Choice People's Choice
2006 muffin top
2007 pod slurping password fatigue
2008 toxic debt flashpacker
2009 shovel ready tweet
2010 googleganger shockumentary
2011 burqini fracking
2012 phantom vibration syndrome First World problem
2013 infovore[39] onesie
2014 mansplain[40] shareplate
2015 captain's call[41] captain's call[42]
2016 fake news halal snack pack
2017 milkshake duck[43][44] framily[45]
2018 me too[46][47] single-use[48]
2019 cancel culture robodebt
2020 doomscrolling and rona Karen and covidiot
2021 strollout[49] strollout
2022 teal[50] bachelor's handbag[50]
2023 cozzie livs[51] generative AI
2024 enshittification[51] enshittification[51]

Merriam-Webster

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Main article: Lists of Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year

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.[52]

The following is the list of words that became Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year since 2003:[53]

Year Word of the Year
2003 democracy
2004 blog
2005 integrity
2006 truthiness
2007 w00t
2008 bailout
2009 admonish
2010 austerity
2011 pragmatic
2012 socialism and capitalism
2013 science
2014 culture
2015 -ism
2016 surreal
2017 feminism
2018 justice
2019 they
2020 pandemic
2021 vaccine
2022 gaslighting
2023 authentic

Oxford

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Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary and many other dictionaries, announces an Oxford Dictionaries UK Word of the Year and an Oxford Dictionaries US Word of the Year; sometimes these are the same word. The Word of the Year need not have been coined within the past twelve months but it does need to have become prominent or notable during that time. There is no guarantee that the Word of the Year will be included in any Oxford dictionary. The Oxford Dictionaries Words of the Year are selected by editorial staff from each of the Oxford dictionaries. The selection team is made up of lexicographers and consultants to the dictionary team, and editorial, marketing, and publicity staff.[54]

Year UK Word of the Year US Word of the Year Hindi Word of the Year
2004 chav
2005 sudoku podcast
2006 bovvered carbon-neutral
2007 carbon footprint locavore
2008 credit crunch hypermiling
2009 simples (Compare the Meerkat catchphrase) unfriend
2010 big society refudiate
2011 squeezed middle
2012 omnishambles GIF (noun)
2013 selfie[55]
2014 vape[56]
2015 😂 (Face With Tears of Joy, Unicode: U+1F602, part of emoji)[57]
2016 post-truth[58]
2017 youthquake[59] Aadhaar[a]
2018 toxic[61] Nari Shakti or Women Power[62]
2019 climate emergency[63] Samvidhaan or Constitution[64]
2020 No single word chosen[65] Aatmanirbharta or Self-Reliance[66]
2021 vax[67]
2022 goblin mode[68][69]
2023 rizz[70]
2024 brain rot[71]

Grant Barrett

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Since 2004, lexicographer Grant Barrett has published an unranked words-of-the-year list, usually in The New York Times.[citation needed]

Similar word lists

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A Word a Year

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Since 2004, Susie Dent, an English lexicographer has published a column, "A Word a Year", in which she chooses a single word from each of the last 101 years to represent preoccupations of the time. Susie Dent notes that the list is subjective.[72][73][74] Each year, she gives a completely different set of words.

Since Susie Dent works for the Oxford University Press, her words of choice are often incorrectly referred to as "Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year".

Other countries

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Austria: Word of the year (Austria) [de], since 1999

In Germany, a Wort des Jahres has been selected since 1972 (for year 1971) by the Society of the German Language.[75] In addition, an Unwort des Jahres (Un-word of the year or No-no Word of the Year) has been nominated since 1991, for a word or phrase in public speech deemed insulting or socially inappropriate (such as "Überfremdung").[76] Similar selections are made each year since 1999 in Austria, 2002 in Liechtenstein, and 2003 in Switzerland. Since 2008, language publisher Langenscheidt supports a search for the German youth word of the year, which aims to find new words entering the language through the vernacular of young people.[77][78]

In addition, several German dialects have their own Wort des Jahres selection: de:Plattdeutsches Wort des Jahres, de:Wort des Jahres (Sachsen), and de:Wort des Jahres (Südtirol)

In Denmark, the Word of the year [da] has been selected by Mål og Mæle [da], a popular science language magazine, during 2006-1012 and since 2009 also by the Sproglaboratoriet [da] radio program of the DR P1 radio channel in collaboration with Dansk Sprognævn (Danish Language Council).

Japan has held an annual word of the year contest called the "New Word/Trendy Phrase Award [ja]" (Shingo ryūkōgo taishō) since 1984, sponsored by the Jiyu Kokuminsha [ja] publisher (by U-CAN [ja] since 2004). In addition, the Kanji of the Year (kotoshi no kanji) has been selected since 1995, and both the kanji and the word/phrase of the year often reflect current Japanese events and attitudes. For example, in 2011, following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the frustratingly enigmatic phrase used by Japanese officials before the explosion regarding the possibility of a meltdown - "the possibility of recriticality is not zero" (Sairinkai no kanōsei zero de wa nai) - became the top phrase of the year. In the same year, the kanji for "bond" (i.e., family ties or friendship) became the kanji of the year, expressing the importance of collectiveness in the face of disaster.[79]

Liechtenstein: Word of the year (Liechtenstein) [de] since 2002

In Norway, the word of the year poll has been carried out since 2012.

In Portugal, the word of the year poll has been carried out since 2009.

In Russia, the word of the year poll has been carried out since 2007.

In Spain, a word of the year has been selected by Fundéu since 2013.

Switzerland: Word of the year (Switzerland) [de], since 2003

In Ukraine, the word of the year poll has been carried out since 2013.

In The Netherlands, the dictionary company Van Dale asks people to send in their nominations for the word of the year, it then makes a 10 word shortlist of which people can vote the word of the year. It started doing this since 2007.

See also

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Further reading

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  • John Ayto, "A Century of New Words", Series: Oxford Paperback Reference (2007) ISBN 0-19-921369-0
  • John Ayto, "Twentieth Century Words", Oxford University Press (1999) ISBN 0-19-860230-8

Notes

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  1. ^ First Hindi Word of the Year[60]

References

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  1. ^ "Australian National Dictionary Centre's Word of the Year 2016 | Ozwords". ozwords.org. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
  2. ^ "What exactly is a democracy sausage?". BBC News. December 14, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
  3. ^ "'Shirtfront' named Australia's word of the year". ABC News. December 10, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
  4. ^ Communications, CASS Marketing &; externalrelations.cass@anu.edu.au (December 23, 2013). "Bitcoin 2013 word of the year". ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  5. ^ Ireland, Judith (December 10, 2014). "'Shirtfront' wins Australian National Dictionary Centre's word of the year award". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  6. ^ "Word of the Year reflects increasing frustration with Australia's top supermarkets". ABC News. November 19, 2024. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
  7. ^ "The Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year 20** is ..." Retrieved September 21, 2023.
  8. ^ Guy, Jack (November 20, 2024). "Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year 2024 is all about thinking positive". CNN. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
  9. ^ Prickett, Katy (November 20, 2024). "'Manifest': Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year". BBC News.
  10. ^ a b Addler, Esther (November 20, 2024). "Celebrities make 'manifest' appear as 2024 word of the year". The Guardian.
  11. ^ "Cambridge Dictionary's Word of the Year is 'quarantine'". The Times of India.
  12. ^ "'Perseverance' named Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year". Independent.co.uk. November 17, 2021.
  13. ^ "Cambridge Dictionary reveals word of the year for 2023". Independent.co.uk. November 15, 2023.
  14. ^ "Collins English Dictionary | Definitions, Translations and Pronunciations". www.collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  15. ^ Collins Dictionary (November 1, 2017), Collins Dictionary announce their 2017 Word of the Year, archived from the original on December 12, 2021, retrieved October 11, 2018
  16. ^ "Collins Word of the Year 2013 is... – New on the blog – Word Lover's blog – Collins Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com. December 12, 2013. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  17. ^ Topping, Alexandra (December 16, 2013). "Geek deemed word of the year by the Collins online dictionary". the Guardian. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  18. ^ susanwright (November 5, 2014). "The year that was...Lucy Mangan looks at the Collins Word of the Year shortlist". Collins Dictionary Language Blog. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  19. ^ "And the Collins English Dictionary word of the year is..." The Irish Times. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  20. ^ susanwright (November 5, 2015). "'Binge-watch' - Collins Word of the Year 2015". Collins Dictionary Language Blog. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  21. ^ "Binge-watch: Collins' Word of the Year". BBC News. November 5, 2015. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  22. ^ "Top 10 Collins Words of the Year 2016". blog.collinsdictionary.com. November 3, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  23. ^ "'Brexit' is Collins' Word of the Year 2016 | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  24. ^ susanwright (November 2, 2017). "Collins 2017 Word of the Year Shortlist". Collins Dictionary Language Blog. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  25. ^ "Fake news is officially 2017's word of the year". The Independent. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  26. ^ "Collins 2018 Word of the Year Shortlist". blog.collinsdictionary.com. November 7, 2018. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  27. ^ "Collins Dictionary 2018 word of the year revealed". The Irish Times. November 7, 2018. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  28. ^ susanwright (November 7, 2019). "Collins Word of the Year 2019 shortlist". Collins Dictionary Language Blog. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  29. ^ Guy, Jack (November 7, 2019). "'Climate strike' named Collins' word of the year for 2019". CNN. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  30. ^ susanwright (November 10, 2020). "The year of lockdown". Collins Dictionary Language Blog. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  31. ^ "Collins - the Collins Word of the Year 2020 is".
  32. ^ "Get your crypto at the ready: NFTs are big in 2021". Collins Dictionary Language Blog. November 24, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
  33. ^ susanwright (November 1, 2022). "A year of 'permacrisis'". Collins Dictionary Language Blog. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  34. ^ susanwright (November 1, 2023). "The acceleration of AI and other 2023 trends". Collins Dictionary Language Blog. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  35. ^ blog.collinsdictionary.com https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/a-year-when-hedonism-and-anxiety-combine/. Retrieved November 1, 2024. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  36. ^ a b "What Dictionary.com's words of the year say about us". cnn. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  37. ^ "Existential' crowned word of the year by Dictionary.com". Click on Detroit. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  38. ^ [1]
  39. ^ "The Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year is ..." The Conversation. February 4, 2014. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  40. ^ "Macquarie Dictionary words of the year: 'mansplain' and 'share plate'". The Sydney Morning Herald. February 5, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  41. ^ "Tony Abbott's lexical legacy: Captain's call is 2015 Word of the Year". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  42. ^ "Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year". Macquarie Dictionary. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  43. ^ Webb, Tiger (January 15, 2018). "Why 'milkshake duck' is the perfect choice for word of the year". ABC News. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  44. ^ "The Committee's Choice for Word of the Year 2017 goes to..." Macquarie Dictionary. January 15, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  45. ^ "Committee's Choice and People's Choice announced!". Macquarie Dictionary. January 23, 2018. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  46. ^ Webb, Tiger (January 15, 2019). "Macquarie Dictionary word of the year goes to 'me too', in a year filled with digital uncertainty". ABC News. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  47. ^ "The Committee's Choice for Word of the Year 2018 goes to..." Macquarie Dictionary. January 15, 2018. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  48. ^ "Committee's Choice and People's Choice announced!". Macquarie Dictionary. December 19, 2018. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  49. ^ "Strollout chosen as Macquarie dictionary's 2021 word of the year". the Guardian. November 29, 2021. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  50. ^ a b "Australia's word of the year has been revealed". SBS News. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  51. ^ a b c Wiseman, Lewis (November 26, 2024). "Macquarie Dictionary names 'enshittification' as 2024 Word of the Year. But what does it mean?". ABC News. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
  52. ^ "Merriam-Webster launches 'Word of the Year' online poll". CNET. November 27, 2007. Retrieved December 29, 2007.
  53. ^ "Word of the Year Archive". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  54. ^ Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year: Frequently Asked Questions (viewed November 20, 2013).
  55. ^ The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 is... (viewed November 20, 2013).
  56. ^ Grisham, Lori (November 18, 2014). "Oxford names 'vape' 2014 Word of the Year". USA Today. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  57. ^ "Word of the Year 2015". Oxford Dictionaries. November 16, 2015. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  58. ^ "Word of the Year 2016 is... | Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries | English. Archived from the original on November 16, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  59. ^ "Oxford Word of the Year 2017". Oxford Languages. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on December 16, 2019. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  60. ^ Gohain, Manash Pratim (January 28, 2018). "'Aadhaar' is Oxford's first Hindi word of the year". The Times of India. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  61. ^ "Toxic: Oxford Dictionaries sums up the mood of 2018 with word of the year". CNN. November 15, 2018. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  62. ^ "Nari Shakti Is Oxford Dictionary's Hindi Word Of The Year 2018". The Indian Express. January 27, 2019. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  63. ^ Zhou, Naaman (November 20, 2019). "Oxford Dictionaries declares 'climate emergency' the word of 2019". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 21, 2019. "Climate emergency" was named word of the year.
  64. ^ "Oxford Hindi Word of the Year 2019 is Samvidhaan". India Today. January 28, 2020. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  65. ^ Words of an Unprecedented Year (PDF), Oxford University Press, November 20, 2020, retrieved December 8, 2020
  66. ^ "Oxford Hindi Word of the Year 2020 | Oxford Languages". languages.oup.com. Archived from the original on March 13, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2021. The Oxford Hindi Word of the Year 2020 is… Aatmanirbharta or Self-Reliance.
  67. ^ "'Vax' Chosen as Word of the Year by Oxford - November 1, 2021". Daily News Brief. November 1, 2021. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  68. ^ James, Imogen (December 5, 2022). "Oxford word of the year 2022 revealed as 'goblin mode'". BBC News. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  69. ^ "Oxford Word of the Year 2022". Oxford Languages. Oxford University Press. 2022. Archived from the original on November 21, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  70. ^ "Oxford Word of the Year 2023 | Oxford Languages". languages.oup.com. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
  71. ^ "Oxford Word of the Year 2024 | Oxford University Press". corp.oup.com. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
  72. ^ A Word a Year: 1906–2006
  73. ^ A Word a Year: 1905–2005[dead link‍]
  74. ^ A Word a Year: 1904–2004[dead link‍]
  75. ^ German Word of the Year
  76. ^ "Unword of the year" in Germany
  77. ^ "This is the German youth word of the year for 2020". The Local Germany. October 15, 2020. Retrieved August 15, 2021.
  78. ^ "The word of the year (whether we like it or not)". The Spectator. Retrieved August 15, 2021.
  79. ^ Miller, Laura (2017). "Japan's trendy Word Grand Prix and Kanji of the Year: Commodified language forms in multiple contexts". Language and Materiality: Ethnographic and Theoretical Explorations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–28.
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