Word of the Year is a symbolic award for the word or expression that best captures a year. For English, the American Dialect Society started the tradition in 1990, and Merriam-Webster, Oxford, and the Macquarie Dictionary followed with awards of their own. Below you will find the answers to the most common questions about the award and a list of every winner.
Oxford's choice for 2016, for example, was post-truth. Its Word of the Year page explains why each word was chosen.
The Word of the Year
What is the Word of the Year?
Word of the Year is a symbolic award that several institutions give to a word that had a special impact in the year it was chosen. It is not limited to single words: expressions that were important in public life during that year can win too.
When did it start?
In Germany, the tradition of choosing a "Wort des Jahres" goes back to 1971. The first Word of the Year for the English language was chosen by the American Dialect Society in 1990.
Who announces the Word of the Year?
For English, the American Dialect Society announces its Word of the Year after the calendar year has ended. Several dictionaries have also started to publish a Word of the Year of their own:
- Merriam-Webster started in 2003.
- Oxford (Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford dictionaries) started in 2004.
- The Macquarie Dictionary, the dictionary of Australian English, started in 2006.
Unlike the dictionaries' choices, the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year is chosen by a vote among linguists.
What are the different categories?
Besides the overall Word of the Year, the American Dialect Society also chooses words in several categories. The categories change from year to year. Some of them are:
- most useful
- most creative
- most unnecessary
- most notable hashtag
Every Word of the Year in English
Here are the words that the four institutions have chosen, from the first award in 1990 to 2025. Where Oxford chose a different word for the UK and for the US, both are shown, UK first. Where the Macquarie committee and the public vote chose different words, the committee's choice comes first.
| Year | American Dialect Society | Merriam-Webster | Oxford | Macquarie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | slop | slop | rage bait | AI slop |
| 2024 | rawdog | polarization | brain rot | enshittification |
| 2023 | enshittification | authentic | rizz | cozzie livs / generative AI |
| 2022 | -ussy | gaslighting | goblin mode | teal / bachelor's handbag |
| 2021 | insurrection | vaccine | vax | strollout |
| 2020 | Covid | pandemic | no single word ("Words of an Unprecedented Year") | doomscrolling and rona / Karen and covidiot |
| 2019 | (my) pronouns | they | climate emergency | cancel culture / robodebt |
| 2018 | tender-age shelter | justice | toxic | me too / single-use |
| 2017 | fake news | feminism | youthquake | milkshake duck / framily |
| 2016 | dumpster fire | surreal | post-truth | fake news / halal snack pack |
| 2015 | they (singular) | -ism | the "Face with Tears of Joy" emoji | captain's call |
| 2014 | #blacklivesmatter | culture | vape | mansplain / shareplate |
| 2013 | because (as in "because reasons") | science | selfie | infovore / onesie |
| 2012 | hashtag | socialism and capitalism | omnishambles / GIF | phantom vibration syndrome / First World problem |
| 2011 | occupy | pragmatic | squeezed middle | burqini / fracking |
| 2010 | app | austerity | big society / refudiate | googleganger / shockumentary |
| 2009 | tweet | admonish | simples / unfriend | shovel-ready / tweet |
| 2008 | bailout | bailout | credit crunch / hypermiling | toxic debt / flashpacker |
| 2007 | subprime | w00t | carbon footprint / locavore | pod slurping / password fatigue |
| 2006 | plutoed | truthiness | bovvered / carbon-neutral | muffin top |
| 2005 | truthiness | integrity | sudoku / podcast | |
| 2004 | red state, blue state, purple state | blog | chav | |
| 2003 | metrosexual | democracy | ||
| 2002 | weapons of mass destruction (WMD) | |||
| 2001 | 9-11 | |||
| 2000 | chad | |||
| 1999 | Y2K | |||
| 1998 | e- (as in e-mail, e-commerce) | |||
| 1997 | millennium bug | |||
| 1996 | mom (as in "soccer mom") | |||
| 1995 | web, to newt | |||
| 1994 | cyber, morph | |||
| 1993 | information superhighway | |||
| 1992 | Not! | |||
| 1991 | mother of all (as in "the mother of all battles") | |||
| 1990 | bushlips |
Many of these words say as much about their year as any history book. If you want to know where a new word comes from or how it gets into a dictionary, read how to get your made-up word into the dictionary.