People's Choice winner. The most influential word of the year is also selected by the Word of the Year Committee which is chaired by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Dr Michael Spence. The Editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, Susan Butler, is also a committee member. The Committee meets annually to select the overall winning words. The following is the list of winning words since the Macquarie Word of the Year first began in 2006: Merriam-Webster The lists of Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year (for each year) are ten-word lists published annually by the American dictionary-publishing company Merriam-Webster, Inc., which feature the ten words of the year from the English language. These word lists started in 2003 and have been published at the end of each year. At first, Merriam-Webster determined its contents by analyzing page hits and popular searches on its website. Since 2006, the list has been determined by an online poll and by suggestions from visitors to the website. The following is the list of words that became Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year since 2003: 2003: democracy 2004: blog 2005: integrity 2006: truthiness 2007: w00t 2008: bailout 2009: admonish 2010: austerity 2011: pragmatic 2012: socialism and capitalism 2013: science 2014: culture 2015: -ism 2016: surreal 2017: feminism 2018: justice 2019: they 2020: pandemic 2021: vaccine 2022: gaslighting Oxford Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary and many other dictionaries, announces an Oxford Dictionaries UK Word of the Year and an Oxford Dictionaries US Word of the Year; sometimes these are the same word. The Word of the Year need not have been coined within the past twelve months but it does need to have become prominent or notable during that time. There is no guarantee that the Word of the Year will be included in any Oxford dictionary. The Oxford Dictionaries Words of the Year are selected by editorial staff from each of the Oxford dictionaries. The selection team is made up of lexicographers and consultants to the dictionary team, and editorial, marketing, and publicity staff. Grant Barrett Since 2004, lexicographer Grant Barrett has published a words-of-the-year list, usually in The New York Times, though he does not name a winner. 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 in New York Times, also a more complete list 2014 in Dallas Morning News Dictionary.com In 2010, Dictionary.com announced its first word of