Word of the Year 2021

Towards the end of a year, prominent dictionaries and language websites announce the word of the year, abbreviated to WOTY. It is the declaration of a word that has been used often in the public domain in the year that’s ending. These are the words that have captured the public sentiment and are a reminder of events that caught the attention of society.

Why do we have these words? These chosen words accurately describe the year gone by. Dictionaries release their word of the year based on most searched words or phrases on their websites for that year.

To give context, some of the words for 2020 were pandemic (are we even surprised?), Work from Home, Covid-19, asymptomatic – we are sure you can see how they accurately describe what we were thinking and going through last year.

In 2015, Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year was an emoji! It was the face with tears of joy 😂.

The word(s) of the year are like a mini year in review, capturing the essence in one teeny yet mighty word.

Oxford has declared ‘Vax’ as the word of the year for 2021. Again, so real surprises here. As we moved on from the effects of the pandemic to the hope that vaccines brought, the conversations have been on everything related to being ‘vaxxed’.

Dictionary chose ‘allyship’ as their word for 2021. The term was chosen for the way it represents “the way the public processed” the events of 2021. Allyship was added to the website just this year and marks the first time a word has been selected as word of the year in the same year it was added to the dictionary.

Collins Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2021 is NFT. This accurately reflects the digital trend of our times, the greater acceptance of crypto currency and buying and selling of non fungible tokens. If you are still wondering what are NFTs and why are they so popular, we speak about it here.

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2021 is  ‘vaccine’. The word was looked up 601% more times than it was in 2020.

Cambridge Dictionary anointed ‘perseverance’ as their word of the year 2021. The word symbolizes both NASA’s Mars rover safely landing in February, and the overall feel of 2021.

We turn to dictionaries in times of confusion and conflict. The word of the year is like making sense of the time we have just witnessed and lived through.

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