Merriam-Webster has chosen “justice” as its word of the year for 2018.
The word was the most looked up term throughout the year at Merriam-Webster’s website, and was consulted 74% times more than in 2017.
“The concept of justice was at the center of many of our national debates in the past year: racial justice, social justice, criminal justice, economic justice,” stated Merriam-Webster in its decision. “In any conversation about these topics, the question of just what exactly we mean when we use the term justice is relevant, and part of the discussion.”
The website stated that this year’s news stories, from the Mueller investigation to the Kavanaugh case, all attributed to the rise in search of the term. And of course, tweets by President Donald Trump also had an impact, as “Justice” is often used to refer to the Department of Justice.
For a number of reasons and meanings, ‘justice’ was on the minds of many in 2018.
‘Justice’ is our 2018 #WordOfTheYear.https://t.co/kyB9swUkQp
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) December 17, 2018
“Curiosity about the word justice correlated with news stories involving the Justice Department a number of times in 2018, as when the department reversed its policy of lenient enforcement of marijuana laws, announced its support for a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, proposed a ban on bump stocks, and began an investigation of Tesla,” reads a release on the term.
“The term obstruction of justice spiked on August 1, the day that President Trump tweeted his wish for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop the Mueller investigation.”
Justice has different meanings that range from the technical and legal to the lofty and philosophical. But one thing’s for sure, justice was on the minds of many people this year.
As for other terms looked up, here are 10 words that sent people to the dictionary in 2018, in order:
Nationalism
Pansexual
Lodestar
Epiphany
Feckless
Laurel
Pissant
Respect
Maverick
Excelsior
See also
- Group calls for China to release detained former Canadian diplomat
- 38 charges laid against BC farm in chicken abuse case
- Facebook admits bug recently exposed 6.8 million users' photos
Follow Channels and Categories