The Most Looked-Up Words Plus Other Vocab Variations

Happy New Year: With 2025 arriving in just a few hours, it’s that time again to compile the so-called words of the year, i.e., those that prestigious or perceived prestigious or influential online dictionaries say rose to the top of the online search hierarchy.

Read on to determine if any of these 2024 winners “resonate” with you or if you’ve even ever heard of some of them. As usual, the lists contain duplicate entries.

2024 Dictionary Words of the Year

Earlier this month, Merriam-Webster announced that polarization is its word of the year for 2024, which is perhaps unsurprising in an election year, although these year-end lists in the past often seem unduly politicized, if not woke.

Per the announcement, “Search volume on Merriam-Webster.com throughout the year reflected the desire of Americans to better understand the complex state of affairs in our country and around the world.”

We define polarization as “division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum but become concentrated at opposing extremes.”

Merriam-Webster also called attention to other words that spiked in search results including totality, demure, fortnight, pander, resonate, allison, weird, cognitive, and democracy.

“The basic job of the dictionary is to tell the truth about words,” Merriam-Webster editor Peter Sokolowski asserted. “We’ve had dictionaries of English for 420 years and it’s only been in the last 20 years or so that we’ve actually known which words people look up.”

U.K.-based Oxford University Press has declared that brain rot (which is, as others have observed, is two words) is its word of the year based on about 37,000 votes and a language data analysis that included six words on a shortlist.

Here is Oxford’s summary:

“Our experts noticed that ‘brain rot’ gained new prominence this year as a term used to capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media. The term increased in usage frequency by 230% between 2023 and 2024. The first recorded use of ‘brain rot’ was found in 1854 in Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden, but has taken on new significance as an expression in the digital age.”

Demure, dynamic pricing, lore, romantsy, and slop made the above-mentioned shortlist.

For Dictionary.com, demure (do you see a trend here?) is it’s word of year because it was made popular by a certain viral TikTok video.

According to the organization, “To select the 2024 Word of the Year, our lexicographers analyzed a large amount of data including newsworthy headlines, trends on social media, search engine results, and more to identify words that made an impact on our conversations, online and in the real world.”

Cambridge Dictionary‘s 2024 word of the year is manifest (“to use methods such as visualization and affirmation to help you imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen”), which accounted for 130,00 page views

In its own words, as it were, here’s why U.K.-based Cambridge selected this word for 2024:

“When we choose the Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year, we have three considerations: user data, zeitgeist, and language. Which word was looked up most, or spiked? Which one really captures what was happening in that year? And what is interesting about this word from a language point of view?  

Manifest met all three requirements: 

The Collins Dictionary has named brat (“characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude”) its word of the year 2024.

Collins goes on to say that “Inspired by the Charli XCX album, ‘brat’ has become one of the most talked about words of 2024. More than a hugely successful album, ‘brat’ is a cultural phenomenon that has resonated with people globally, and ‘brat summer’ established itself as an aesthetic and a way of life.”

Other word that made the Collins shortlist included brain rot (see above), era, looksmaxxing, rawdogging, romantasy (another duplicate), supermajority, and yapping.

The American Dialect Society intends to announce its word of the year on January 9, 2025, at the companion annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Check back for updates.

Down with Uptalk and Other Weird Ways of Speaking

At this time of year, this blog again renews its call for an end to the very annoying uptalk vocal intonation. The good news is that uptalk seems to have subsided in the past 12 months.

As succinctly defined by Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, uptalk (sometimes called upspeak or high-rising terminal) is “a way of speaking in which the voice rises at the end of a statement, making it sound like a question.”

Although uptalk has mercifully become less common, another annoying conversational trait has emerged in the media space.

Everyone uses filler words to some degree, but the needless use of the filler word “right?,” or “right,” as a connector or a delaying tactic between sentences or a request for validation has become rampant.

Although the video below is three years old, “right” seems to be trending more than ever.

As an aside to the filler-word topic , New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone –whether or not he makes it again to the MLB World Series — seems set to establish a world’s record for filler words in the use of “you know,” and “I mean,” while answering questions at post-game pressers.

Gaslighting

In an entirely separate issue, the use of the term gaslighting has become commonplace, unfortunately, but with good reason, especially — but not limited to — election season.

Among its definitions, gaslighting is “the practice of deceiving people through the repetition of a constructed false narrative.

Click here for an important essay about gaslighting.

Banished Words List

Although it appears that the Marist Poll has abandoned its yearly survey of the most annoying words or phrases, Michigan’s Lake Superior State University on December 31 usually releases its annual tongue-in-cheek list of words/phrases that theoretically/satirically should be banished from the English language in the upcoming new year.

As of this writing, LSSU appears to have yet to published its list, so please check back for updates.

Additional Words or Slang Not to Live By

Like a comfortable hoodie or pair of socks, certain words/phrases fit a situation and provide a shorthand way to get your message across. They may or may not constitute as annoying words.

However, a lot more of them have entrenched themselves in everyday conversation and lexicon as clichés or fillers.

Some even have outlived their “shelf life” and “sell-by-date,” although your conversational mileage may vary.

Click here for a list of potential additional banishment candidates.

Pressing the Reset Button on These Words

On the other side of the coin, Wayne State University’s annual Word Warriors program that assembles a list of words to bring back “from the brink of obsolescence…to enrich our language.”

All year long, Wayne State (also Michigan based) take suggestions from the general public, as well as its from administrators of its Word Warriors website, for long-forgotten words worthy of receiving new life.

The 2024 top-ten list in Word Warriors’ 15th year (get your dictionary ready) is as follows:

  • Blatherskite
  • Curglaff
  • Dollop
  • Kaffeeklatsch
  • Pawky
  • Petrichor
  • Pettifogger
  • Rawgabbit
  • Thunderplump 
  • Twankle 

 As alluded to above, this post will be updated