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For the third consecutive year, Oxford University Press (OUP) is providing word lovers with the opportunity to vote for its annual Word of the Year.

This year’s shortlist, reflecting some of the “moods and conversations that have shaped 2024”, has been compiled by OUP’s experts following an analysis of its 25-billion-word corpus of language data.

Encapsulating themes from finances to fantasy, and the evolving impact of technology on society, the competing six words and expressions have seen a notable spike in usage and gained new prominence in 2024.

“Everyone experiences words that resonate with them, that encapsulate how they feel about a certain time. The words we choose reflect who we are and remind us of the power that language holds to shape the world around us.”

The shortlist, now open to public voting, includes:

• Lore (n.): A body of (supposed) facts, background information, and anecdotes relating to someone or something, regarded as knowledge required for full understanding or informed discussion of the subject in question.
• Brain rot (n.): Supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.
• Dynamic pricing (n.): The practice of varying the price for a product or service to reflect changing market conditions; in particular, the charging of a higher price at a time of greater demand.
• Demure (adj.): Of a person: reserved or restrained in appearance or behaviour. Of clothing: not showy, ostentatious, or overly revealing.
• Slop (n.): Art, writing, or other content generated using artificial intelligence, shared and distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way, and characterized as being of low quality, inauthentic, or inaccurate.
• Romantasy (n.): A genre of fiction combining elements of romantic fiction and fantasy, typically featuring themes of magic, the supernatural, or adventure alongside a central romantic storyline.

You can vote for your favourite Word of the Year until Thursday, 28 November, at Oxford University Press Word of the Year 2024.

The winner will be announced on 2 December.

[source:oup]