Merriam-Webster’s 2024 word of the year is “polarization” which was heard around the world during this year’s heated election season. Polarization was joined by other popular searched words that competed for word of the year,

The famous American dictionary publisher on Monday announced that “polarization”—defined as “division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum but become concentrated at opposing extremes”—is its Word of the Year for 2024.

With less than a month left until January, Merriam-Webster has chosen its 2024 Word of the Year, one that has often defined the political landscape of the United States and its candidates. The word, the book company reported,

In 2003, Merriam-Webster decided to make “democracy” its first word of the year. Since then, the word — which, of course, means a form of government in which the people elect representatives to make decisions, policies and laws — is consistently one of the dictionary’s most looked up.

Demure came close but was beaten out by a descriptor of one of the most tense election years in recent history

Merriam-Webster’s top 10 most-searched words in 2024 reflect the year’s key cultural moments and news events. In the face of the nation’s divisions, the dictionary remains “a kind of backstop for meaning,

The dictionary publisher said Americans from competing tribes looked up the definition to better understand divided politics at home and worldwide.

A word that has been used incessantly to describe the fraught state of American politics and society is Merriam-Webster’s 2024 word of year. That word is “polarization.”

Depending on who you ask, the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election rattled the country or were cause for celebration.

Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is one that the dictionary suggests unifies both sides of the aisle. The dictionary publisher said Monday that “polarization” is its 2024 word of the year, defining it as “division into two sharply distinct opposites;