It may come as no surprise which word is the Oxford English Dictionary's Word of the Year.
"Vax" gets that honor. As we know, it's short for vaccine and it comes as many people around the world rolled up their sleeves this year to get a coronavirus shot. The dictionary noted "vax" became over 72 times more frequent by this September than compared to the same month last year. It also said various other terms emerged from the world including "fully vaxxed."
Meanwhile, the Merriam-Webster dictionary has added these words:
- Air Fryer (n) – Who didn’t buy one this year?
- Amirite (interjection) -- As in, Am I right?”
- Astroturf (adj) – Not the fake grass on fields but as a way to describe something "falsely made to appear grassroots."
- Breakthrough (n) – The medical term for an "infection occurring in someone who is fully vaccinated against an infectious agent."
- Copypasta (n) – Content that is copied and spread widely online.
- Dad bod (n) – No explanation needed.
- Digital Nomad (n) – Person who does their job entirely online while traveling.
- Faux Hawk (n) – Hairdo that is slicked up to look like a real Mohawk.
- Fourth trimester (n) -- The three-month recovery period after childbirth.
- FTW (abbreviation) – For the win
- Super-spreader (n) – "An individual who is highly contagious and capable of transmitting a communicable disease to an unusually large number of uninfected individuals."
- TBH (abbreviation): To be honest
- Vaccine passport (n): "A physical or digital document providing proof of vaccination against one or more infectious diseases (such as COVID-19)." (Mental Floss)