Words of the year

From the Cambridge Dictionary, manifest : “to use methods such as visualization and affirmation to help you imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen.”

From the Collins Dictionary, brat : inspired by Charli XCX and “characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.”

From Dictionary.com, demure : “The word demure experienced a meteoric rise in usage in 2024.... This sharp rise is mainly attributed to TikToker Jools Lebron’s popularization of the phrase ‘very demure, very mindful’ in a series of videos posted to the platform in early August.”

From The Economist, kakistocracy : “Kakistocracy has the crisp, hard sounds of glass breaking. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on whether you think the glass had it coming. But kakistocracy’s snappy encapsulation of the fears of half of America and much of the world makes it our word of the year.”

From Macquarie Dictionary, enshittification : “the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.” Coined by Cory Doctorow, it was the American Dialect Society’s word of the year last year.

From Merriam-Webster, polarization : “one idea that both sides of the political spectrum agree on.”

From Oxford Languages, brain rot : “Supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.” First used by Henry David Thoreau in Walden (1854).

My suggestion for 2024: women.

I’ll add to this post as more words arrive.