Merriam-Webster Selects “Surreal” as the 2016 Word of Year
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)
In-depth Look at Surreal
Gallery of Top Trending Words From 2016
See Also: Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 is “Post-Truth”
Filed under: News, Publishing

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.