The Merriam-Webster dictionary has proved once again that they are on the forefront of what is hot and trending in the United States at any given time. And considering how much our world has been turned upside down in 2020, we're not surprised at their updated entries to round out one of the worst years in recent memory. The coronavirus pandemic, a very volatile presidential election, and a hurricane season that was never-ending were just a few of the topics that dominated our world this year.

But what was the choice for 2020's 'Word of the Year' from the folks at  Merriam-Webster? I wasn't a bit surprised that it is 'pandemic'. That's right, a word we definitely didn't want to think about has now been on top of our minds for almost 12 months now. The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak an official global pandemic in March.

Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster, told The Associated Press, via USA Today “Often the big news story has a technical word that's associated with it, and in this case, the word 'pandemic' is not just technical but has become general. It's probably the word by which we'll refer to this period in the future."

Runner up words this year include "coronavirus", "Quarantine", "asymptomatic", "mamba", "defund", and "antebellum". Read more about the new entries into this year's dictionary from USA Today.

 

 

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