Merriam-Webster’s Word Of The Year Is “Vaccine”

The Associated Press reports:

With an expanded definition to reflect the times, Merriam-Webster has declared an omnipresent truth as its 2021 word of the year: vaccine. “This was a word that was extremely high in our data every single day in 2021,” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large, said.

“It really represents two different stories. One is the science story, which is this remarkable speed with which the vaccines were developed. But there’s also the debates regarding policy, politics and political affiliation. It’s one word that carries these two huge stories,” he said.

The selection follows “vax” as word of the year from the folks who publish the Oxford English Dictionary. And it comes after Merriam-Webster chose “pandemic” as tops in lookups last year on its online site.

Read the full article.

Merriam-Webster has declared vaccine its 2021 word of the year. Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for the dictionary company, says lookups for the word increased 601% over 2020. https://t.co/wF20hZcVX1

— The Associated Press (@AP) November 29, 2021