Merriam-Webster Inc., America's leading dictionary
publisher, has announced today, Dec. 15 its top Words of the Year for 2015.
This year, for the first time, Merriam-Webster has named a suffix, -ism, as its
2015 Word of the Year, reflecting the fact that many of Merriam-Webster's
highest ranking words this year had one thing in common; they ended in
-ism.
The list of high-ranking -isms begins with the most
looked-up word of the year -- socialism, but also includes:
- Fascism
- Terrorism
- Racism
- Feminism
- Communism
- Capitalism
"Socialism has been near the
top of our online dictionary lookup list for several years," explains
Peter Sokolowski, Editor-at-Large at Merriam-Webster. "However, this year
lookups moved up even further, beginning with the July campaign events for
Bernie Sanders, remaining high throughout the following months, and spiking
again after the first Democratic debate in October."
Terrorism was frequently looked
up during the past year, particularly following attacks in Paris, Colorado
Springs, and San Bernardino. Responses to those attacks, including Donald
Trump's comments about banning Muslims from entering the United States, also
drove lookups of fascism. Police violence, the South Carolina church shooting, and the
University of Missouri protests were among the reasons that lookups of racism
increased this year. Amy Schumer's success, Hillary Clinton's candidacy, and
coverage of Caitlyn Jenner's story contributed to spikes for the word feminism.
Non -ism words looked up in large numbers in 2015 include
marriage, which peaked when the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples could
marry nationwide, and minion, because of the hit movie The Minions.
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