Merriam-Webster Announces "Feminism" as 2017 Word of the Year

Springfield, Ma, Dec. 12, 2017 -- Merriam-Webster, the dictionary company helping millions of people understand and use language better, has announced its Words of the Year for 2017. This year’s data-driven list is determined by two simple criteria: the words must experience a high volume of lookups and a significant year-over-year increase in lookups at Merriam-Webster.com. The results shed light on topics and ideas that sparked the nation’s interest in 2017.

Merriam-Webster announces "feminism" as 2017 Word of the Year

The Word of the Year for 2017 is feminism—with lookups of the word trending higher all year long as well as spiking for different reasons over the course of the year, beginning with the Women’s Marches held around the world in January. The word spiked again when Kellyanne Conway stated that she didn’t consider herself a feminist “in the classic sense.” More recently, lookups of feminism have increased in conjunction with the many accounts of sexual assault and harassment in the news, the willingness of women to share similar stories using the #MeToo hashtag, and the breaking news regarding the resignations or terminations of the men charged or accused.

Feminism is defined as both “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” and “organized activity in support of women’s rights and interests. ” 

“No one word can ever encapsulate all the news, events, or stories of a given year,” explains Peter Sokolowski, Editor at Large for Merriam-Webster. “But when we look back at the past twelve months and combine an analysis of words that have been looked up much more frequently than during the previous year along with instances of intense spikes of interest because of news events, we see that one word stands out in both categories.” 

Gallery: Get more detail on all the 2017 Words of the Year

Other top lookups this year include dotard, an extremely rare and old-fashioned word used in a translation of a statement about President Trump by Kim Jong Un. The unfamiliar word dotard means “a person in his or her dotage,” or old age.

The solar eclipse sent people to the dictionary to look up the word syzygy. The obscure astronomy term comes from the Greek syzygos, meaning “yoked together. ”

Video: See Peter Sokolowski talk about the Word of the Year

Entertainment and pop culture drove people to look up both gaffe and gyro in huge numbers. The word gaffe saw a large spike in lookups when the Oscar for Best Picture was mistakenly awarded to the wrong movie. Lookups of gyro were driven by interest in the word’s pronunciation, after a widely shared sketch with Jimmy Fallon and country singer Luke Bryan ended with a music video for a song called “I Don’t Know How to Pronounce Gyro.”

“Looking at the news through the prism of vocabulary is ceaselessly fascinating for word lovers,” adds Sokolowski. “There is an ongoing national conversation, and Merriam-Webster has a front-row seat.”

See the full list of Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Year here.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bc43db24-3d2a-44cf-af54-0994c512bd48

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/56a12244-e1a4-477d-a30e-91a613e6869c

Meghan Lunghi
Merriam-Webster Inc.
413-734-3134 x8152
[email protected]