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This is the Word of the Year, According to Merriam-Webster

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Dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster has announced their pick for the word of the year for 2023. This is a word that has seen new popularity in terms of searches, as well as being something relevant to the time we’re in.

Runners-up for 2023 include rizz, deepfake, coronation, dystopian, EGOT, X, implode, Doppelgänger, covenant, indict, elemental, kibbutz, and deadname. Many of those are tied to specific news stories: the coronation of Charles III, Viola Davis’s EGOT, Twitter being rebranded as X, and the submersible Titan imploding, to name a few.

The winning word of 2023, though, is not tied to one particular news story as much as its a concern of the moment: authentic. According to Merriam-Webster, “A high-volume lookup most years, authentic saw a substantial increase in 2023, driven by stories and conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media.”

Read more about this story at Merriam-Webster.

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