At the end of each calendar year, many well-known online dictionaries, encyclopedias, and research sites pick a Word of the Year. In most cases, these words or phrases were looked up the most by their users, voted on, or used a lot in the media throughout the year.
According to Merriam-Webster, 2024’s Word of the Year is “polarization.” The site defines "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.”
Indeed, who could argue that America wasn't more polarized than ever in 2024?
Continuously published since 1828, Merriam-Webster selects the word of the year by determining which word had the most significant number of lookups during the calendar year. Throughout the contentious 2024 election season, high search volume on the dictionary's website "reflected the desire of Americans to better understand the complex state of affairs in our country and around the world," Merriam-Webster said.
Examples of this word can be found across the media. Right-leaning Fox News reported that vice presidential candidate JD “Vance's debate answer on immigration crisis show[ed] voter polarization in real-time responses.” Meanwhile, hard-left MSNBC observed, "The 2024 presidential election has left our country more polarized than ever.” Beyond politics, Forbes used the word to describe the divide in U.S. culture, warning about “the chilling effect [cultural] polarization has on workplace communication."
I mean, who among us hasn't avoided speaking with a coworker or family member so we didn't have to listen to another rant about how racist and hateful we are?
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Of course, “polarization” wasn’t the only word with significant lookup numbers. Additional words with high-volume lookups on the website in 2024 included:
Totality: Sparked by the impending occurrence of a solar eclipse that would briefly turn day into night across thirteen U.S. states in April, users looked up "totality," which is “the phase of an eclipse during which it is total; the state of total eclipse.” Seriously, users had to look up this one? I weep for our nation.
Demure: Fueled by a trans woman TikToker named Jools Lebron, the word's use surged in August. With the viral catchphrase, “You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful,” Lebron's phrase “very demure, very mindful” became a meme, prompting other TikTockers to begin looking it up and using it excessively because all originality is dead on that platform. Unsurprisingly, the "demure" of the 14th century (avoiding attention) is not the "demure" of 2024 (fake shyness). I can't even with this one.
Fortnight: We have so-called singer Taylor Swift and her legion of Swifties to thank for this one. Swift's song "Fortnight" brought the 700-year-old term back into use in 2024. It means “a period of 14 days; two weeks” or "fourteen nights." We can hope the Taylor Swift trend itself only lasts a fortnight longer.
Pander: Lookups on this one spiked in mid-October when both sides of the political aisle mockingly used it against the other. The word means "to say, do, or provide what someone wants or demands even though it is not proper, good, or reasonable.” Remember hearing Harris pander to voters of color by using her phony accents? Yeah, we ain't no ways tired of that one, either.
Resonate: ChatGPT and the lazy media gave us this high-use gem. Defined in part as “to affect or appeal to someone in a personal or emotional way,” the word also appeared frequently in political news regarding positions and issues resonating with voters. Hello, dead word, anyone? Anyone?
Allision: Finally, an actually interesting word; it had high lookup numbers after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore in March. News sources began using the term instead of "collision." An "allision" is when a ship runs into a stationary object, while a collision is contact between two moving objects. Who knew?
Weird: You knew this one would have to be here, didn't you? In late July, vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz called MAGA and JD Vance “weird people on the other side.” The word meaning “of strange or extraordinary character” was then picked up and used ad nauseum by the sycophantic leftist media. It's weird how we won anyway, huh? Sticks and stones, my friends. Sticks and stones.
Dictionary.com also chose Jools Lebron's "demure" as their Word of the Year. Lawd, help us all.
@commentforum @Jools Lebron #demureoriginal #verydemure #verymindful #demure ♬ original sound - commentson
Following a public vote of over 37,000 users, Oxford University Press announced that the Word of the Year for 2024 was "brain rot."
It's the "supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state," mainly due to overconsumption of material (particularly online content) considered trivial or unchallenging. It can also be used to describe something that leads to that deterioration.
In other words, that's the perfect encapsulation of the year that was 2024.
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