Reflecting on a special Word of the Year launch event

Last week, people around the world attended an exclusive livestream hosted by renowned lexicographer and etymologist Susie Dent, joined by a panel of OUP experts as we announced our shortlist for Oxford Word of the Year 2024.

Katherine Martin, Product Director in Oxford Languages, brought us all the way back to 2004 and took us through the past 20 years of Word of the Year. There was special mention of some years where our winners were not just simply a ‘word’: in 2015, we named 😂 as Word of the Year after it made up 20% of all emojis used in the UK, and 17% in the US; while in 2020, we published a special report into the ‘Words of an Unprecedented Year’ as we felt one word couldn’t sum up all the events of that year.

Fiona McPherson, Senior Editor in the New Words team for the Oxford English Dictionary, explained how a potential winner of Word of the Year does not necessarily need to have staying power beyond the year it was chosen in, saying that “in some ways, that makes it an even better candidate for a Word of the Year because it’s saying something about that year, that time”.

Examples of some of our past winners which have both captured the essence of their year and have stayed in the public consciousness include 2013 winner selfie (Fiona’s favourite winner!), 2005 US winner podcast, and 2012 UK winner .

After this fascinating potted history, Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, explained the value of involving the public in the decision-making process, saying that “we’re interested in the conversations that happen around the shortlist”, following the announcement that this year’s winner would be decided, in part, by public vote.

The winner will also be decided through analysis based on our corpus data—a collection of over 25 billion words, capturing how usage frequency and senses are changing over time—by our language experts. Casper said: “I feel it brings two expert facets together: us, as users, are the experts of the English language; along with the evidence-based story that allows us to look underneath the hood of what’s happening to language.”

Without further ado, it was time to reveal the six shortlisted words.

‘Brain rot’ and ‘slop’ are both words which can be linked to an anxiety about the balance between humanity and technology but allude to it in different ways. While ‘brain rot’ speaks to the anxiety of the effects of viewing or overindulging in algorithmic, online content and striking a balance between the online and real world, ‘slop’ captures a sense of nervousness around content created by generative AI displacing or draining out human creativity.

Although the earliest evidence for ‘romantasy’ appeared in 2008, the term hadn’t become mainstream until the last 12 months when usage frequency has spiked, particularly on BookTok. Another term which is not new this year, but certainly has taken on new prominence in the year, is ‘dynamic pricing’. Awareness of—and controversy over— its use has increased this year due to some high-profile cases around concert tickets, as well as its use in transport and other industries.

Rounding off our shortlist, ‘lore’ and ‘demure’ have been used in new contexts this year, revitalizing them as a part of our vocabulary. Usage of these words has been driven in particular by users and communities on TikTok through cycles of different and rapidly changing trends.

After some insightful questions and answers with the whole panel, Susie brought proceedings to a close, announcing that voting is open.

You can catch up with the full event recording here. And, don’t miss out on the chance to have your say on your favourite Word of the Year—voting closes at 3pm GMT on Thursday 28 November.