Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

 rattled the country and sent shockwaves across the world — or were cause for celebration, depending on who you ask. Is it any surprise then that the 

“Polarization means division, but it’s a very specific kind of division,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday's announcement. “Polarization means that we are tending toward the extremes rather than toward the center.”

The election was so divisive, many American voters went to the polls with a feeling that the opposing candidate was an existential threat to the nation. 

 a survey of more than 120,000 voters, about 8 in 10 Kamala Harris voters were very or somewhat concerned that Donald Trump’s views — but not Harris' — were too extreme, while about 7 in 10 Trump voters felt the same way about Harris — but not Trump.

Merriam-Webster entry for “polarization”

 reflects scientific and metaphorical definitions. It’s most commonly used to mean “causing strong disagreement between opposing factions or groupings.” Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site, chooses its word of the year based on data, tracking a rise in search and usage.

 This year's comes as large swaths of the U.S. struggle to reach consensus on what is real.

“It’s always been important to me that the dictionary serve as a kind of neutral and objective arbiter of meaning for everybody,” Sokolowski said. “It’s a kind of backstop for meaning in an era of fake news, alternative facts, whatever you want to say about the value of a word’s meaning in the culture.”

It’s notable that “polarization” originated in the early 1800s — and not during the Renaissance, as did most words with Latin roots about science, Sokolowski said. He called it a “pretty young word,” in the scheme of the English language. “Polarized is a term that brings intensity to another word,” he continued, most frequently used in the U.S. to describe race relations, politics and ideology.

“The basic job of the dictionary is to tell the truth about words,” the Merriam-Webster editor continued. “We’ve had dictionaries of English for 420 years and it’s only been in the last 20 years or so that we’ve actually known which words people look up.”

“Polarization” extends beyond political connotations. It's used to highlight fresh cracks and deep rifts alike 

? Polarizing. The International Olympic Committee's decision to strip American 

gymnast Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal

 after the Paris Games? You guessed it: polarizing.

Even lighthearted memes — like those making fun of Australian breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn's performance — or the proliferation of look-alike contests, or who counts as a nepo baby proved polarizing.

Paradoxically though, people tend to see eye to eye on the word itself. Sokolowski cited its frequent use among people across the political spectrum, including commentators on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.

“It’s used by both sides,” he said, “and in a little bit ironic twist to the word, it’s something that actually everyone agrees on.”

Rounding out Merriam-Webster's top 10 words of 2024:

TikToker Jools Lebron’s 38-second video

 describing her workday makeup routine as “very 

, very mindful” lit up the summer with memes. The video has been viewed 

, yielding “huge spikes” in lookups, Sokolowski said, and prompting many to learn it means reserved or modest.

 song “Fortnight,” featuring rapper Post Malone, undoubtedly spurred many searches for 

, which means two weeks. “Music can still send people to the dictionary,” Sokolowski said.

 inspired awe and much travel. There are tens of millions of people who live along a narrow stretch from Mexico’s Pacific coast to eastern Canada, otherwise known as the path of 

, where locals and travelers gazed skyward to see the moon fully blot out the sun. Generally, the word refers to a sum or aggregate amount — or wholeness.

“Texts developed by AI have a disproportionate percentage of use of the word 

 Sokolowski said. This may be because the word, which means to affect or appeal to someone in a personal or emotional way, can add gravitas to writing. But, paradoxically, 

 “also betrays itself to be a robot because it’s using that word too much.”

 often than usual when, in March, a ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. “When you have one moving object into a fixed object, that’s an allision, not a collision. You’re showing that one of the two objects struck was not, in fact, in motion,” Sokolowski said.

This summer on the TV news show “Morning Joe,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called Republican leaders 

 landing him as the Democratic vice presidential nominee. Though it's a word that people typically misspell — is it “ei” or “ie”? — and search for that reason, its rise in use was notable, Sokolowski said.

 was used to raise questions about President Joe Biden’s debate performance or Trump’s own age, it cropped up often. It refers to conscious intellectual activity — such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering.

 was used widely in political commentary, Sokolowski said. “Conservative news outlets accused Kamala Harris of pandering to different groups, especially young voters, Black voters, gun rights supporters.” Whereas Walz said Trump’s visit to a McDonald’s kitchen pandered to hourly wage workers. It means to say, do, or provide what someone — such as an audience — wants or demands even though it is not “good, proper, reasonable, etc.”

In 2003, Merriam-Webster decided to make “democracy” its first word of the year. Since then, the 

 — which, of course, means a form of government in which the people elect representatives to make decisions, policies and laws — is consistently one of the dictionary's most looked up. “There’s a poignancy to that, that people are checking up on it,” Sokolowski said. "Maybe the most hopeful thing that the curiosity of the public shows, is that they’re paying attention.”

Politics and Government News

Homepage

The Associated Press

Author

Depending on who you ask, the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election rattled the country or were cause for celebration. Is it any surprise the Merriam-Webster word of the year is “polarization”?

‘Polarization’ is Merriam-Webster’s 2024 word of the year

Go Deeper.

Like this?