`Feminism` is Merriam-Webster's word of the year

New Delhi: Several key moments of 2017 justify the selection of 'feminism' as Merriam-Webster's word of the year. "2017 saw both a sustained rise in 'feminism' lookups and a number of event-driven spikes," the dictionary's official Twitter account shared. "'Feminism' is our #WordOfTheYear."

Lookups for the definition of feminism increased by 70 percent over last year, according to the dictionary.

Peter Sokolowski, Editor at Large for Merriam-Webster, said in a statement, "'Feminism' spiked following news coverage of the Women's March on Washington, DC in January (and other related marches held around the country and internationally), and follow-up discussions regarding whether the march was feminist, and what kind of feminism was represented by organizers and attendees."

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"The word spiked again when Kellyanne Conway said during an interview that she didn't consider herself a feminist. In this case, the definition of feminism was itself the subject of the news story-an invitation for many people to look up the word."

The word soared again in the dictionary's online searches with the emergence of #MeToo movement.

"More recently, lookups of feminism have been increasing in conjunction with the many accounts of sexual assault and harassment in the news. As the country witnessed a number of women coming forward to share their stories with journalists, many more women joined in on social media using the #MeToo hashtag to say that they too have been affected by such behavior," he said.

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Other highly searched words on Merriam-Webster.com include 'recuse,' 'empathy,' 'dotard,' 'syzygy' and 'gyro.' (ANI) 
 

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