Move Over ‘Selfie’ – Merriam-Webster Dictionary Names ‘Science’ the Word of the Year

Move over ‘selfie,’ there’s a new word of the year in town.

The selfie is one of the most popular activities ever, and Merriam-Webster, America’s leading dictionary publisher, agrees.  “Selfie” is one of Merriam-Webster’s Top 10 Word of the Year on December 3rd. Their choices weren’t based on the new, hip buzz words, but instead by the lookups on the online dictionary. The words that made their list had the biggest increase in lookups over last year.

The words that increased in lookups were not new or headline-worthy, but instead were “words behind the stories in this year’s news.”

‘Science’ saw an increase of 176 percent in lookups in 2013.

Peter Sokolowski, Editor-at-Large at Merriam-Webster believes ‘science’ tops the list because of a wide variety of topics and discussions that came about this year, from climate change to educational policy.

“We saw heated debates about ‘phony’ science, or whether science held all the answers. It’s a topic that has great significance for us. And it fascinates us–enough so that it saw a 176% increase in lookups this year over last, and stayed a top lookup throughout the year,” Sokolowski explained.

We decided to have some fun at the recent National Science Teacher Association’s conference in Denver.  Some crazy science teachers took #ScienceSelfies with Steve. Are you a science teacher, science student or science fan? Take your own #ScienceSelfie and share it with us on Twitter using the hashtag. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

 

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2013:

1. science
2. cognitive
3. rapport
4. communication
5. niche
6. ethic
7. paradox
8. visceral
9. integrity
10. metaphor