From The USA Today:
Online searches for the definition of “surreal” spiked after several major worldwide events this year, especially the U.S. presidential election, making it the word of the year, according to dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.
[Clip]
“Spikes of interest in a word are usually triggered by a single event, so what’s truly remarkable this year about surreal is that so many different stories led people to look it up,” says Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster. “Historically, surreal has been one of the words most searched after tragedy, most notably in the days following 9/11, but it was associated with a wide variety of stories this year.”
Read the Complete Article
Additional Resources (via M-W.com)
2016 Word of the Year: Behind the Scenes (VIDEO)
Gallery of Top Trending Words From 2016
See Also: Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 is “Post-Truth”