12/09/2024

Merriam-Webster Picks its Word of the Year

It also highlighted nine others that defined 2024

Sharp divides have seemed to define America lately, and Merriam-Webster just made it official.

The famous American dictionary publisher on Monday announced that “polarization”—defined 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"—is its Word of the Year for 2024.

The term, which dates back to the early 1800s in reference to light waves but is often used today in relation to politics, was chosen at the end of the world's biggest-ever election year, including a U.S. presidential race that saw left and right continue to split further apart. Merriam-Webster had already announced in October the introduction of new words to its dictionary in 2024, including “far left” and “far right” as well as “MAGA”—the shorthand Donald Trump's highly-polarizing 'Make America Great Again' movement.

Please select this link to read the complete article from TIME.