Word of the Year

One of the most famous dictionaries in the world is the Oxford Dictionary. Its trust and reliability for the spelling and usage of words is without equal. But how does a word get into this dictionary?

Scholars and others use a variety of methods to investigate potential new words. One way is to collect them from the Internet. Words are also obtained through technical journals, song lyrics, and other sources. When words begin to show up in various ways, with increasing frequency, they are then scrutinized more carefully. Formerly, words that might be useful to writers were considered as potential new entries. That has changed, and now the words have to appear first in oral language to then be considered.

In the past, words had to be used for several years before being included in a dictionary. In today’s digital age, however, words are sent worldwide in minutes, and usage increases in scope much more quickly.

The Oxford Dictionary has an annual “Word of the Year.” A word-of-the-year selection team, consisting of lexicographers, dictionary editors, and consultants, chooses the word. They use the Oxford Dictionary’s New Monitor Corpus, a research program that collects around 150 million words of current English in use each month, using automated search criteria to scan new web content.

The Word of the Year for 2013 is selfie. It is the term used when a person takes his or her own photo using a phone, tablet, or other device. The word was first noticed in 2003. In 2013, the use of the word grew tremendously and was selected. Past Words of the Year include sudoku, podcast, carbon footprint, and unfriend.