US linguists have picked the gender-neutral pronoun “they” as their word of the decade. The term beat a list of contenders that included “meme,” “#BlackLivesMatter” and “‘MeToo” to win the crown.

‘The’ tops the league tables of most frequently used words in English, accounting for 5% of every 100 words used.

This year has seen so many seismic events that Oxford Dictionaries has expanded its word of the year to encompass several “Words of an Unprecedented Year”. Its words are chosen to reflect 2020’s “ethos, mood, or preoccupations”.

Ding, ding, ding: Merriam-Webster on Monday announced “pandemic” as its 2020 word of the year.

‘Resilience

Merriam-Webster’s 2019 Word Of The Year Is The Singular, Nonbinary ‘They’ The dictionary publisher lauded the singular they Tuesday, noting that the tiny word has enjoyed important new uses in an English language that otherwise lacks a good gender-neutral alternative.

seventeenth century

“Toxic” derives from the Greek “toxikon pharmakon,” meaning “poison for arrows.” (The part of the phrase meaning arrows, rather than poison, became the basis for the word.) The current entry in the online Oxford English Dictionary dates its earliest known printed occurrence to 1664, in a book about forests.

‘Toxic’ is Oxford Dictionaries’ 2018 word of the year. ‘Gaslighting’ and ‘techlash’ are among runners-up.

Samvidhaan

100 most common words

“Toxic” derives from the Greek “toxikon pharmakon,” meaning “poison for arrows.” (The part of the phrase meaning arrows, rather than poison, became the basis for the word.)

APA endorses the use of “they” as a singular third-person pronoun in the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. This means it is officially good practice in scholarly writing to use the singular “they.”