Along with seemingly endless “best of lists of the year” we are also now being offered lots of options for the WOTY (word of the year). The English language seems to provide ample fodder these days with a wealth of social media slang terms going viral.

One of my favorite words that seemed to finally get traction in 2024, although it’s been around for a while, is the word enshittification. Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary chose enshittification; if that sounds familiar, it’s because it was the American Dialect Society’s WOTY for 2023. Coined by Canadian-British writer Cory Doctorow in 2022, it refers to the gradual decline in functionality or usability of a specific platform or service — something that Google, TikTok, X users can attest to.

Other publications have also weighed in with their chosen WOTY. Cambridge Dictionaries chose manifest. Collins Dictionary selected brat. The Economist chose kakistocracy . Merriam-Webster picked polarization. Oxford University Press, which invited the public to vote on a shortlist, picked brain rot,

One of my personal picks for WOTY that doesn’t seem to have made any lists is Sanewashing. Portraying a statement (by a political figure or other newsmaker) as more coherent than it actually is. Used frequently in 2024 to refer to U.S. media’s sanitizing of candidate Trump’s ramblings.