Oxford Dictionary chooses.. wait they chose WHAT for their word of the year?!
Every year the folks over at the Oxford dictionary pick a word that best reflects the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of said year.
This year? The news might be a little uncomfortable – are you ready? The Oxford Dictionary Word of the year is -the “Face With Tears of Joy” emoji. It is the most used emoji globally of 2015. Some would argue that this does not actually make it count as a word, but hey, we’re progressive world, are we not?
You can check out the reasons behind the choice on the Oxford Dictionary blog here.
Oxford is currently polling readers on its blog about what word they’d chose as Word of the Year. As of the time of writing, “They” is winning with 21%, followed by the ‘Face With Tears Of Joy’ emoji at 20%, followed closely behind with “refugee” at 19%.
Here is the list of the Oxford Dictionary words of the year up to today.
Year | UK Word of the Year | US Word of the Year |
---|---|---|
2015 | 😂 (Face With Tears of Joy, part of emoji)[21] | |
2014 | Vape[22] | |
2013 | selfie[23] | |
2012 | omnishambles | GIF (verb) |
2011 | squeezed middle | |
2010 | big society | refudiate |
2009 | simples | unfriend |
2008 | credit crunch | hypermiling |
2007 | carbon footprint | locavore |
2006 | bovvered | carbon-neutral |
2005 | sudoku | podcast |
2004 | chav |