Does the 2020 Merriam-Webster Word of the Year Leave Much to Be Desired?

Every year, Merriam-Webster releases its word of the year; 2019's was "they," in the way gender non-binary individuals use their pronouns. Since the word of the year, the organization says, is based on data, including significant increases in search engine look-ups, 2020's word is none too surprising: The word, the dictionary posted on Twitter, is "pandemic." Surely this is one of, if not the, most looked-up word for this year (others included "malarkey," "kraken" and "antebellum"), but was it the only word that could have sufficiently summed up 2020?

Brigitte Carreiro
by Brigitte Carreiro
Nov 30, 2020