America’s leading and most-trusted provider of language information, Merriam-Webster, has announced a list of words that made the top 10 Words of the Year 2017.
Merriam-Webster announced that the top word of the year is ‘Feminism’.
“The word was a top lookup throughout the year, with several spikes that corresponded to various news reports and events.
“The general rise in lookups tells us that many people are interested in this word; specific spikes give us insight into some of the reasons why,” the language information provider said in a statement on its website.
Feminism spiked following news coverage of the Women’s March on Washington, DC in January (and other related marches held around the country and internationally), and follow-up discussions regarding whether the march was feminist, and what kind of feminism was represented by organizers and attendees.
The word spiked again when Kellyanne Conway said during an interview that she didn’t consider herself a feminist. In this case, the definition of feminism was itself the subject of the news story—an invitation for many people to look up the word.
Complicit, Recuse, Empathy, Dotard, Syzygy, Gyro, Federalism, Hurricane, and Gaffe, completed the list of the 2017 Words of the Year.