with occupy 2012: Other nominees were YOLO (an acronym for "You Only Live Once," often used sarcastically or self-deprecatingly), fiscal cliff (the threat of spending cuts and tax increases looming over end-of-year budget negotiations), Gangnam style (the trendy style of Seouls Gangnam District, as used in the Korean pop song of the same name), marriage equality (legal recognition of same-sex marriage), and 47 percent (a claimed portion of the population that does not pay federal income tax). 2013: slash: used as a coordinating conjunction to mean "and/or" (e.g., "come and visit slash stay") or "so" ("I love that place, slash can we go there?"), twerk: A mode of dance that involves vigorous booty-shaking and booty-thrusting, usually with the feet planted, Obamacare: term for the Affordable Care Act that has moved from pejorative to matter-of-fact shorthand and selfie: a photo taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone and shared on social media. 2014: bae: a sweetheart or romantic partner, columbusing: cultural appropriation, especially the act of a white person claiming to discover things already known to minority cultures, even: deal with or reconcile difficult situations or emotions (from "I can't even"), manspreading: of a man, to sit with one's legs wide on public transit in a way that blocks other seats. 2015: ammosexual, ghost, on fleek, thanks, Obama 2016: woke, normalize, post-truth, #NoDAPL, 🔥 2017: alternative facts, #MeToo, milkshake duck, persisterhood/persister, pussyhat, take a knee, whomst 2018: yeet, (the) wall, X strong, Individual 1, white-caller crime 2019: ok boomer, cancel, Karen 2020: 2020, antiracism, Before Times, BIPOC, doomscrolling, pandemic, social distancing, unprecedented 2021: antiwork, Big Lie, Great Resignation, long COVID, Omicron, variant, vax/vaxx 2022: Dark Brandon, quiet quitting, rizz, Slava Ukraini, special military operation Categories In addition to the "Word of the Year", the society also selects words in other categories that vary from year to year: Most useful 2008: Barack Obama (specifically, the use of both names as combining forms, such as ObamaMania or Obamacare) 2009: fail (noun or interjection used when something is egregiously unsuccessful) 2010: nom (onomatopoetic form connoting eating, esp. pleasurably) 2011: humblebrag (expression of false humility, especially by celebrities on Twitter) 2012: -(po)calypse, -(ma)geddon (hyperbolic combining forms for various catastrophes) 2013: because introducing a noun, adjective, or other part of speech (e.g., "because reasons," "because awesome"). 2014: even (deal with or reconcile difficult situations or emotions, from "I can't even") 2015: they (gender-neutral singular pronoun for