2 weeks ago 8

'Polarization’ is Merriam-Webster’s 2024 Word of the Year

Whether it's politically or culturally, “polarization means that we are tending toward the extremes rather than toward the center.”

The shockwaves sent by the outcome of this year’s US presidential election can be felt in Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year.

Whether the return of Donald Trump to the White House has been a cause of celebration for some or damning evidence that no lessons are learned when people choose to elect a convicted felon who spreads hatred, “America’s Most Trusted Dictionary” highlights this division with their 2024 pick: “Polarization.”

“Polarization means division, but it’s a very specific kind of division,” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, told AP. “Polarization means that we are tending toward the extremes rather than toward the center.”

The Merriam-Webster entry for “polarization” reflects scientific and metaphorical definitions. It is most commonly used to mean “causing strong disagreement between opposing factions or groupings.”

Despite the Trump example, “polarization” extends beyond political connotations. It's used to highlight fresh cracks and deep rifts alike in pop culture.

Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site, chooses its word of the year based on data, tracking a rise in search and usage.

“It’s always been important to me that the dictionary serve as a kind of neutral and objective arbiter of meaning for everybody,” Sokolowski added. “It’s a kind of backstop for meaning in an era of fake news, alternative facts, whatever you want to say about the value of a word’s meaning in the culture.”

The dictionary also shared the other words that round off their Top 10 for 2024, which include: “Demure” (Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year); “Fortnight” (following Taylor Swift’s hit song with Post Malone); “Totality” (following this year’s solar eclipse); “Resonate” (“Texts developed by AI have a disproportionate percentage of use of the word ‘resonate’, Sokolowski said); “Allision” (which spiked when a ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last March); “Weird” (in reference to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz calling Republican leaders “weird”); “Cognitive” (spiking because of the questions raised about President Joe Biden’s debate performance versus Trump); “Pander” (used widely in political commentary); and “Democracy” (what is at stake when Trump comes into power).

Other Words of the Year this year include Collins Dictionary choosing ‘Brat’, Cambridge Dictionary going for ‘Manifest’, and Oxford Dictionary electing ‘Brain rot’ as their official 2024 pick.