When Oxford University Press announced last month that the 2013 word of the year was “selfie,” I was actually a little concerned about our future.
Thankfully, though, Merriam-Webster has come to the rescue with its own word of the year: “science.”
Based on the biggest increase in lookups at Merriam-Webster.com compared to 2012, “science,” came out on top with a 176 percent increase in lookups from last year.
Merriam-Webster said 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.”
“It is a word that is connected to broad cultural dichotomies: observation and intuition, evidence and tradition,” Peter Sokolowski, Editor-at-Large at Merriam-Webster, said of ‘science.’ “A wide variety of discussions centered on science this year, from climate change to educational policy.”
We should note that while Merriam-Webster tallies direct lookups on its website, Oxford elects to analyze overall usage across the Internet when looking for a word of the year.
For example, past words of the year from Merriam-Wbester include “socialism,” “capitalism,” “pragmatic,” and “austerity.” Meanwhile, Oxford has picked phrases like “unfriend,” “credit crunch,” and “carbon footprint.”
Here were Merriam-Webster’s top ten words of 2013:
- Science
- Cognitive
- Rapport
- Communication
- Niche
- Ethic
- Paradox
- Visceral
- Integrity
- Metaphor