Merriam-Webster’s Word Of The Year Is Pandemic

Merriam-Webster’s crowned word of 2020 is pandemic.

“That probably isn’t a big shock,” Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster, said to the Associated Press.

In March, when the World Health Organization declared the outbreak, the word began to trend on Merriam-Webster. On March 11, the search for the word was 115,806% higher than the previous year.

“Often the big news story has a technical word that’s associated with it an in this case, the word pandemic is not just technical but has become general. It’s probably the word by which we’ll refer to this period in the future, Sokolowski said.