And, as every year …

“Words of the Year” (or WOTY) offer a perspective on what interested people in the year past. Some words are chosen by linguistic institutes (like the American Dialect Society – Wikipedia in the US, comparable to the ‘Gesellschaft für Deutsche Sprache‘ in Germany), others by dictionaries that choose according to which words or expressions were looked up most on their websites. Some words reflect social or cultural trends, others refer to news topics or topics that seem to have dominated media throughout the year.

Collins, Oxford, Merriam Webster, Cambridge, dictionary.com, to name just a few of the major dictionaries, all come up with their own WOTY lists. The ways they choose differ slightly and a brief summary of how they decide offers an introduction into the topic. Let’s check the various short lists and the winners.

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Here a slightly different take on the topic: Word of the Year 2026: How to Choose Yours + 100 Powerful Ideas