SPRINGFIELD, MA - SEPTEMBER 23: In this handout image provided by Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and mobile website are displayed September 23, 2016 in Springfield, Massachusetts. (Photo by Joanne K. Watson/Merriam-Webster via Getty Images)
Merriam-Wedbster just annouced what the word of 2017 is, and it has definitely been relevant this year.
“Feminism”
In 2017, lookups for feminism increased 70 percent over 2016 on Merriam-Webster.com
With the women’s march in January of this year, as well as the, “Me Too” movement later in the year, we’d say it’s a good choice for word of the year. In fact, the word, “Feminism” has been in Merriam-Webster’s annual Top 10 for the last few years but this year, it takes center stage as the 2017 word of the year.
If you were wondering, surreal was the word of the year last year.
There were nine runner-ups this year for word of the year:
- Complicit , competitor Dictionary.com’s word of the year.
- Recuse , in reference to Jeff Sessions and the Russia investigation.
- Empathy , which hung high all year.
- Dotard , used by Kim Jong-un to describe Trump.
- Syzygy , the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse.
- Gyro , which can be pronounced three different ways, a phenom celebrated in a Jimmy Fallon sketch on “The Tonight Show.”
- Federalism , which Lindsey Graham referred to in discussing the future of the Affordable Care Act.
- Hurricane , which Sokolowski suspects is because people are confused about wind speed.
- Gaffe , such as what happened at the Academy Awards when the wrong best picture winner was announced. That was a go-to word for the media, Sokolowski said.