The people who compile and edit dictionaries (lexicographers) and track word searches have spoken. After analyzing search engine results, newsworthy headlines, trends on social media and more, they identified the words that were on our lips, online and in the real world.
Here are the words that caught the public’s imagination and earned spots on Word of the Year lists for 2024:
Brain rot: Oxford University Press
Brain rot (also seen as brainrot) is the deterioration of your mental or intellectual state, especially thanks to over-consuming material (particularly online) considered trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration. The term was widely used on social media, particularly TikTok. Usage increased by 250% in frequency per million words between 2023-2024.
Brat: Collins English Dictionary
No longer reserved for your sibling, brat was newly defined in 2024 as an adjective “characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.” The inspiration? The Charli XCX album of the same name. Brat summer was the ensuing aspirational way of life. Other words shortlisted: brainrot (see above); era (a distinctive period of one’s life or career; oh hello Taylor Swift!); and delulu (utterly mistaken or unrealistic ideas or expectations).
Demure: Dictionary.com
Traditionally, demure means “reserved, quiet or modest.” The word’s use increased nearly 1200% in digital web media alone between January and the end of August 2024. The spark for this sharp rise seems to be TikToker Jools Lebron’s comment about her makeup being “very demure, very mindful” in a series of videos in early August.
Dissonance: Ragan Communications and PR Daily
Dissonance goes back as far as the 1400s as a word for disagreement, incongruity or inconsistency. In 2024, Ragan saw dissonance in what employees want and what employers want to provide, and around corporate values and practices such as DEI.
Kakistocracy: The Economist
Kakistocracy is a word for government by a society’s worst, least qualified or most unscrupulous citizens. The term has been used to describe governments of Russia, Egypt and the Philippines, and had particularly vigorous use related to the first presidency of Donald Trump.
Manifest: Cambridge Dictionary
Manifest means using visualization and other methods to help you imagine achieving something you want. Once again, “influencers” online who say they use it helped make manifest one of the dictionary’s most-viewed words of 2024.
Polarization: Merriam-Webster
Polarization is the “division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society…become concentrated at opposing extremes.” That sounds about right for the state of politics, doesn’t it? Other words that made the short list are totality (the state of total eclipse); demure (see above); and fortnight (from Taylor Swift’s song of the same name and the British word meaning two weeks).
Rawdog: The American Dialect Society
According to those presiding over the Jan. 6 voting session, “Rawdog has recently and rapidly burst its sexual bounds to refer to engagement in any activity without the typical preparation or in stone-cold sobriety. In 2024, folks rawdogged flights, family dinners, and final exams.” One nominator added that it’s a great choice “as we collectively rawdog the future of American politics in 2025.”
Other words in the running included crash out (to act irrationally or impulsively); cooked (totally exhausted); and sanewashing (downplaying extreme political rhetoric to make it more palatable).
AND MORE WORDS IN THE NEWS IN 2024:
Dynamic pricing: Plain English Foundation
This Australian foundation calls attention to the worst examples of buzzwords, jargon, doublespeak and corporate spin. Their noble aim: to improve the quality of public language and encourage everyone to adopt a plainer style of writing.
The foundation singled out dynamic pricing as a top offender. The term usually refers to prices that fluctuate with demand, possibly leading to a cheaper product. However, under dynamic pricing, the cost of Oasis tickets “soared instantly and did not come back down.” Other words cited for corporate spin: underground coal gas ignition incident (explosion); business reset (where the company cut 2,800 employees); and sunset (the end of a brand).
Cringe: Lake Superior State University
This Michigan university doesn’t post a word of the year, but has the “lively tradition” of posting a yearly list of “misused and overused” words that should be banished. The list recently posted for 2024 includes cringe (“Hearing ‘someone is so cringe’ makes me cringe!”); game changer (“How many times can a game change before it is no longer recognizable?”); and dropped (overused in place of introduced, released, or offered for sale).
Did you find yourself using any of these words? What are you most fed up with?
Related reading:
AI and hallucinate top the 2023 Words of the Year
Gaslighting and goblin mode made the 2022 list
Pandemic words still dominated 2021