Word of the Year: 2013

Word of the Year 2013
Merriam-Webster: 12.03.2013

Merriam-Webster Inc. announced its top ten Words of the Year for 2013.

The Word of the Year, with the greatest increase in lookups, may surprise many people: science. "It is a word that is connected to broad cultural dichotomies: observation and intuition, evidence and tradition," says Peter Sokolowski, Editor-at-Large at Merriam-Webster. "A wide variety of discussions centered on science this year, from climate change to educational policy. We saw heated debates about 'phony' science, or whether science held all the answers. It's a topic that has great significance for us. And it fascinates us–enough so that it saw a 176% increase in lookups this year over last, and stayed a top lookup throughout the year."  READ MORE !

cognitive
rapport
communication
niche
ethic
paradox
visceral
integrity
metaphor

Word of the Year Archive

This year's list was compiled by analyzing the top lookups in the online dictionary at Merriam-Webster.com and focusing on the words that showed the greatest increase in lookups this year as compared to last year. The results, based on approximately 100 million lookups a month, show that the words that prompted the most increased interest in 2013 were not new words or words used in headlines, but rather they were the words behind the stories in this year's news.