Word of the Year 2020

Photo: Circus Circus

Curating headlines and tweets and your suggestions for top contenders.

WOTY, aka the Word of the Year, is given by dictionaries around the world and other literacy-minded organizations to highlight language which reflect the popular discourse in a calendar year. 2020’s top words: Lockdown, Pandemic, Doomscrolling, Zoombombing

Some thoughts. One of many technologies we take for granted – language is a showpiece of communication (alongside rock art and space junk). Collectively we applaud and cringe and actually learn to use new words, including ‘Word of the Year.’

Headlines
‘Corona pandemic’ named Germany’s word of the year
Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com Proclaim ‘Pandemic’ 2020’s Word of the Year – Rolling Stone
‘Doomscrolling’ and ‘rona’ top Macquarie Dictionary word of the year picks

Embedded Tweets

British dictionary picks "lockdown" as word of the year https://t.co/xfaDoD8KCZ pic.twitter.com/feC2lhUrgg

— The Hill (@thehill) November 10, 2020

The Macquarie Dictionary 2020 Word of the Year is #doomscrolling. What do you think? You can vote for the People's Choice Word of the Year right now. And stay tuned for our COVID Word of the Year! https://t.co/0MaeCEhKns pic.twitter.com/JaXgQeCsXQ

— Macquarie Dictionary (@MacqDictionary) November 29, 2020

As it does every year, the Public Address website sought online votes from a long list of words, many of which came into existence, or rose to prominence in 2020.https://t.co/rZ93RdlUKB

— RNZ (@radionz) December 20, 2020

Features

Doomscrolling

Lockdown

Pandemic

Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of the Year: 2020

Previously

Word of the Year 2019

Word of the Year 2018

Word of the Year 2017

Planeta.com

Word of the Year

Language

Buzzword Bingo 2020