And the word of the year is…

Posted: December 11, 2019 at 10:02 am

Dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster has named its word of the year for 2019: They……Yes, They.

Merriam-Webster says it saw a 313% increase in the number of look-ups of the word on Merriam-Webster.com. As for why the word is being used so much more these days, the company suggests that more people are using it “to refer to one person whose gender identity is nonbinary, a sense that is increasingly common in published, edited text, as well as social media and in daily personal interactions between English speakers.”

The dictionary’s editors use a formula that weighs the raw number of look-ups with current events to come up with a list every year. Here are the other top word look-ups of 2019:

1. Quid pro quo
2. Impeach
3. Crawdad
4. Egregious
5. Clemency
6. The
7. Snitty
8. Tergiversation
9. Camp
10. Exculcate

Impress your friends at your holiday parties!