The dictionary has been putting out a word of the year since 2003, spotlighting words that have been looked up at an increased rate in the year, as well as using polls to narrow it down. 2020’s word was “pandemic”, and 2021’s was “vaccine.” Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books. The nine runner-up words of 2022 were: oligarch, Omicron, codify, LGBTQIA, sentient, loamy, raid, and Queen Consort. For more about why these words became popular searches in 2022, check out Merriam-Webster’s website.
