The Word of the Year 2016 is...
Every year Oxford Dictionaries selects a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest during the year to date: the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year.
Find out what it isWord of the Year
Word of the Year FAQ
Have a question about how we select our Word of the Year? Or want to know what words have previously won the illustrious title?
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Word of the Year 2016: the shortlist
From hygge to glass cliff, explore the words we've included on the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year shortlist. Did your favourite make it?
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Press and Publicity
Find our publicity contact details as well as the latest news and releases from Oxford Dictionaries
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Glass cliff
'Glass cliff' is on our Word of the Year shortlist: Alex Haslam, one of the term's inventors, explores its history.
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Alt-right
'Alt-right' has been increasingly in the news - Lorna Shaddick talks through its sudden rise and impact.
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Woke
'Woke' is shortlisted for Word of the Year 2016: Nicole Holliday looks at how the word has been sanitized.
Read moreFurther reading
5 tasty sandwich etymologies
Read moreWhich Joe gave his name to ‘sloppy joes’? We look at five interesting sandwiches and their lexical origins.
13 animal names and their meanings
Read moreHow did the orangutan get its name? What about the aardvark or the squirrel? We delve into the jungle of animal etymologies.
6 punctuation marks you might be using incorrectly
Read moreWe take a look at several popular, though confusing, punctuation marks.
An A-Z of country name origins
Read moreFrom Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, discover surprising and intriguing language facts from around the globe.
