If Oxford had “selfie”, Merriam-Webster has “science” as word of the year.
According to Webster, which announced the most searched “word of the year” on Tuesday, it recorded a 176 per cent increase in the online search when compared to last year.
“Merriam Webster announces its Word of the Year! It's far from trendy, yet very much of the moment,” tweeted the dictionary editors.
The results from Webster are based on 100 million lookups in its online dictionary per month.
The dictionary defines science as “knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation".
“A wide variety of discussions centered on science this year, from climate change to educational policy,” the dictionary editors said in a statement.
Here in India as well, science was very much in news. From the climate science relating to cyclone Phailin and the Indian connection in the discovery of 'god particle' by a collider built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) to the science and technology involved in the recently launched Mars Orbiter Mission and noted scientist CNR Rao being conferred Bharat Ratna, “science” was food for thought throughout the year.