Merriam-Webster has announced its word of the year. To no one's surprise, it's "pandemic".
Also, unsurprisingly, there are several pandemic-related words in the top twenty, including "coronavirus" and "quarantine". Other top words relate to this year's political turmoil.
Merriam-Webster picks its annual word of the year based on a statistical analysis of words that are looked up on its online platforms “in extremely high numbers” and which show “a significant year-over-year increase in traffic.” The company said the first big spike in “pandemic” searches came on February 3, 2020—the day the first American COVID-19 patient was released from the hospital. That day saw “pandemic” lookups rise 1,621% above the previous year.
I would not have predicted the last two words on the list.
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