2012: The Year in Words

Defining Moments: In politics, culture, sports and more, these words spiked in lookups because of events in the news.

	January 3: "Caucus" As the 2012 presidential election contest officially began...
	January 10: "Ambivalence" As Republicans reacted to Mitt Romney's victories...
	January 13: "Reductive" After Madonna used it to describe a Lady Gaga song...
	January 19: "Egregious" When Paula Deen announced that she has Type 2 diabetes...
	February 1: "Irregardless" A much-forwarded list of "Top 10 Grammar Peeves"...
	February 8: "Disposition" After a college basketball coach used the word to praise a rival...
	February 13: "Highfalutin" When a high school cheerleading coach berated her squad...
	February 20: "Reconcile" In two different celebrity relationship stories...
	February 29: "Moratorium" After North Korea agreed to suspend its nuclear...
	March 2: "Misogyny" In reaction to Rush Limbaugh's comments about...
	March 14: "Cri de Coeur" When a Goldman Sachs executive quit his job, he published...
	March 21: "Narcissism" After a study reported that people with many Facebook friends...
	March 23: "Dystopia" When "The Hunger Games" opened, many reviews described its...
	April 5: "Prima Donna" As the NFL scandal continued to unfold, a recording emerged...
	April 10: "Hubris" On the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's departure...
	April 18: "Gaudy" When an $87 million mansion was put up for auction...
	April 20: "Disingenuous" During the trial of the man accused of murdering...
	May 1: "Anarchist" The five men arrested for plotting to blow up a bridge...
	May 7: "Touché" When Disney revealed details about a new technology...
	May 8: "Vincit Omnia Veritas" After the phrase appeared on a gravestone in a TV show...
	May 22: "Gibberish" An advisor to Mitt Romney dismissed an Obama campaign ad...
	May 27: "Bloviate" After commentator George Will said that Donald Trump was...
	June 1: "Guetapens" When it was spelled correctly to win the National Spelling Bee...
	June 12: "Gaffe" After President Obama remarked that the private sector was...
	June 21: "Genre" When it was used to describe a new vampire movie...
	June 27: "Roman à Clef" Obituaries of Nora Ephron referred to her novel "Heartburn"...
	July 4: "Boson" When evidence of the so-called "God particle," the Higgs boson...
	July 11: "Servitude" After a family in Britain was convicted of forcing...
	July 20: "Terrorism" The word's meaning was discussed after the tragic shooting...
	July 24: "Aviatrix" On the anniversary of Amelia Earhart's birthday...
	August 1: "Acerbic" With the passing of celebrated author Gore Vidal...
	August 8: "Decathlon" As this event began at the London Olympics...
	August 11: "Wonk" When Paul Ryan became the vice presidential candidate...
	August 17: "Hooliganism" When a Russian court sentenced the punk band Pussy Riot to...
	August 27: "Vituperative" Mitt Romney accused President Obama of running a...
	September 3: "Rhetoric" During the Republican and Democratic conventions...
	September 10: "Culture" Students arriving at college were greeted, as usual, with...
	September 18: "Surreptitious" The word was widely used to describe the video of...
	September 25: "Egregious" After NFL fans couldn't believe that a play was ruled a touchdown...
	October 4: "Pundit" After the first presidential debate, there was much reporting about...
	October 11: "Malarkey" When it was used several times during the vice-presidential debate...
	October 17: "Meme" After a phrase from the presidential debate went viral...
	October 22: "Tumult" When Mitt Romney used it during the final presidential debate...
	October 29: "Hunker" As Hurricane Sandy approached the east coast...
	November 6: "Socialism" Interest in the word reached its peak on Tuesday...
	November 14: "Inviolable" After it was used by a figure in the scandal surrounding...
	November 19: "Irony" After a widely read essay offered ways to "live without irony"...
	November 29: "Visceral" A new medical study revealed that deep belly fat in men...
	December 6: "Urbane" A national vocab test showed that most eighth graders don't know...
	December 11: "Poinsettia" A symbol of the Christmas season, and a challenge to spell...
	December 18: "Assault Rifle" The national conversation included many references to the...
	December 27: "Qi" Perhaps because of holiday use of Scrabble and other...

[And more to come]