Dictionary.com 2022 Word of the Year is woman after 1,400 percent surge in searches
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Dictionary.com has revealed ‘woman’ as the 2022 word of the year after searches for the word increased more than 1,400 percent.
Selection is made each year based on site search data, language trends, and major cultural themes.
Searches for the word spiked when a question about the definition of the word was raised on the national stage during a Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, according to Dictionary.com.
The ongoing discussion of the definition resulted in twice the typical annual search volume for the word, according to Dictionary.com.
The leading online and mobile English educational resource defines ‘woman’ as ‘an adult woman’.
Dictionary.com revealed that the 2022 word of the year is ‘woman’, which is defined as ‘an adult female’. Searches for the word spiked to an all time high this year, when a question about the word’s definition was raised during a Supreme Court confirmation.
The increases in searches were evident during several of the year’s key events, including the equal pay deal reached by the US women’s soccer team (pictured in 2019)
The surges were evident during several of the key events of the year, including the Dobbs v. Jackson, the historic midterm elections, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the equal pay deal reached by the US women’s soccer team, the retirement of tennis superstar Serena Williams. and the women-led protests in Iran.
Earlier today, the Cambridge Dictionary received backlash after it updated its definition of ‘woman’ to include anyone who ‘identifies as a woman’ and was accused of bowing to ‘awakened activists’.
“This year, the very question of defining the word ‘woman’ was at the center of so many important moments, debates and decisions in our society,” said John Kelly, senior editorial director of Dictionary.com.
‘Our selection of ‘woman’ as word of the year for 2022, and how the word is defined, who is included in that definition, to whom it applies and to whom the word belongs, highlights just how important a dictionary’s job is and how dictionaries can affect people’s lives.’
“Every day at Dictionary.com, our team documents how language is changing, tracking data and cultural roadmaps,” said Dara Sanderson, CEO of Dictionary.com.
‘Our work culminates in an important selection, a word that defines a year and tells a deeper story. Perhaps no word is more relevant to those points than ‘woman’. As we look to the coming year, linguistically, culturally, and politically, we anticipate an ever-evolving discourse.”
The ongoing discussion of the definition resulted in double the typical annual search volume for the word, according to the Dictionary, including searches when Serena Williams retired.
Shortlisted words are inflation, silent resignation, democracy and Wordle (pictured)
Dictionary.com said its 2022 shortlist reflects how people turn to the dictionary to help understand terminology about current events.
The shortlisted words are Ukraine flag emoji, Inflation, Quiet Resignation, Democracy, and Wordle. The word ‘Wordle’ was added to the dictionary in 2022.
Earlier today, the Cambridge Dictionary was accused of bowing to “some awakened activists” after it updated its definition of “woman” to include anyone who “identifies as a woman.”
A supplementary definition in the online dictionary now states that the word can mean “an adult who lives and identifies as a female, even though said to have a different sex at birth.”
Usage examples include “Mary is a female assigned male at birth” and “She was the first trans woman elected to national office.”
The entry for ‘male’ has also been updated to include people who were of a ‘different sex at birth’.
Cambridge Dictionary was accused of bowing to “some awakened activists” today after it updated its definition of “woman” to include anyone who “identifies as a woman.”
Free Speech Union founder Toby Young warned that compilers had fallen on a “slippery slope”.
“It’s disappointing to see identity politics creeping into the way a dictionary defines words,” he said.
‘The claim that these complementary definitions of “female” and “male” are based on “carefully studied usage patterns” does not seem plausible. Who, apart from a few awakened activists, defines “woman” and “man” in this way?
“I suspect that this new definition has been introduced as a result of lobbying by political activists, a slippery slope that no dictionary should descend.”
The heated debate over the definition of ‘woman’ accelerated when JK Rowling mocked the use of the term ‘menstruating people’.
It was ‘canceled’ in some quarters, and many of the actors in the Harry Potter film series also spoke out against it.
Graphic T-shirts with dictionary-style text reading “Female/noun/adult human female” have added to the controversy, with critics saying it discriminates against transgender people.