2016 Word of the Year
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. , Dec. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Merriam-Webster Inc., America's leading dictionary publisher, has announced its top Words of the Year for 2016. This year's data-driven list is determined by two simple criteria: the words must show a high volume of lookups and a significant year-over-year increase in lookups at Merriam-Webster.com. The results shed light on topics and ideas that sparked the nation's interest in 2016. The Word of the Year for 2016 is surreal —with lookups of the word spiking after a number of major events worldwide, beginning with the Brussels terror attacks in March. Surreal was used in descriptions of the coup attempt in Turkey later in the year and in coverage of the terrorist attack in Nice. The largest spike in lookups for surreal followed the U.S. election in November. "Spikes of interest in a word are usually triggered by a single event, so what's truly remarkable this year about surreal is that so many diffe