In what seems like a fairly obvious choice the Merriam-Webster Word of the Year 2020 is- Pandemic. Consider this a cruel joke or just a clear-cut selection based on the numbers, the influence of the Coronavirus is all pervading. Pandemic is defined by the Merriam-Webster as “an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affects a significant proportion of the population,” and Coronavirus did excel in all the aspects mentioned in the definition.
It is the most searched word of 2020 according to Merriam-Webster Names Pandemic as Word of the Year
In what seems like a fairly obvious choice is the Merriam-Webster Word of the Year 2020 now- Pandemic. Consider this a cruel joke or just a clear-cut selection based on the numbers, the influence of the Coronavirus is all-pervading. Pandemic is defined by the Merriam-Webster as “an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affects a significant proportion of the population,” and Coronavirus did excel in all the aspects mentioned in the definition.
It is the most searched word of 2020 according to both Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com. The initial spike in searches related to the word happened in January and shoot up by 1621% on February 3rd compared to the same time last year when the first COVID-19 patient (in the US) was discharged from a Seattle hospital. The biggest spike was on March 11 when the World Health Organization officially declared that “COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.”
“Sometimes a single word defines an era, and it’s fitting that in this exceptional — and exceptionally difficult — year, a single word came immediately to the fore as we examined the data that determines what our Word of the Year will be,” Merriam-Webster said in its announcement.
Brought the world to a standstill, pushed thousands into unemployment, broke the backs of healthcare systems worldwide and made billionaires richer, truly the Coronavirus pandemic defined 2020 and will probably continue to do that for the next year too.
And unsurprisingly an array of pandemic related words has also come into public use this year, including quarantine, corona baby-kids conceived during the lockdown, Zoom fatigue- mentally exhausted caused by video-conferencing apps like Zoom, covidiot- this one doesn’t need any explanation. The other words in the top 10 were coronavirus, defund, mamba — which saw a surge after the death of Kobe Bryant, kraken, quarantine, antebellum, schadenfreude, asymptomatic, irregardless, icon — which spiked after the deaths of John Lewis in July and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September and malarkey.
th Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com. The initial spike in searches related to the word happened in January and shoot up by 1621% on February 3rd compared to the same time last year, when the first COVID-19 patient (in the US) was discharged from a Seattle hospital. The biggest spike was on March 11 when the World Health Organization officially declared that “COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.”
“Sometimes a single word defines an era, and it’s fitting that in this exceptional — and exceptionally difficult — year, a single word came immediately to the fore as we examined the data that determines what our Word of the Year will be,” Merriam-Webster said in its announcement. Brought the world to a standstill, pushed thousands into unemployment, broke the backs of healthcare systems worldwide and made billionaires richer, truly the Coronavirus pandemic defined 2020 and will probably continue to do that for the next year too. And unsurprisingly an array of pandemic related words has also come into public use this year, including quarantine, corona baby-kids conceived during the lockdown, Zoom fatigue- mental exhausted caused by video-conferencing apps like Zoom, covidiot- this one doesn’t need any explanation. The other words in the top 10 were coronavirus, defund, mamba — which saw a surge after the death of Kobe Bryant, kraken, quarantine, antebellum, schadenfreude, asymptomatic, irregardless, icon — which spiked after the deaths of John Lewis in July and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September and malarkey.
