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Words of the Year

2017 Word of the Year: Behind the Scenes

Editor Peter Sokolowski talks about 'feminism' and the rest of our Word of the Year 2017 selections


How did we choose feminism as our Word of the Year? Peter Sokolowski explains the data behind our decisions, and how these words reflect what was on people's minds this year.


Don't miss our in-depth look at feminism and our gallery of top trending words from 2017.

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2017 Word of the Year: Behind the Scenes

 

How we chose 'feminism'

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How to Remember the Spelling of 'Definitely'

 

A definitive answer.

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Sneaked vs. Snuck

 

How the irregular 'snuck' sneaked into the dictionary

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How a Word Gets into the Dictionary

 

What our editors are looking for when they enter words in Merriam-Webster.

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When Body Parts Are Also Verbs

 

Head, shoulders, metaphors, and toes

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Words of the Year: 1066

 

English was never the same after the Norman Conquest

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Pictures in the Dictionary

 

The story of those iconic illustrations.

Games & Quizzes

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Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
little boy with a magnifying glass looking at footprints
Quiz: Spot the Misspelled Word! Think you can detect a spelling error from a mile...
See All