Edhat Staff
Esteemed dictionaries have revealed their top words of the year for 2023 and they are all over the place.
We can’t make sense of a theme between them, but maybe you can!
Here are the top words of the year:
Authentic
Merriam-Webster has identified their word of the year as: Authentic. This dictionary defines authentic as not false or imitation; true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character; and worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact.
Authentic saw a substantial increase in 2023, driven by stories and conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media, according to Merriam-Webster.
This commonly used word is often connected to identity and frequently associated with cuisine and dishes, such as “Authentic Italian Pasta Sauce,” but also self and voice such as “Taylor Swift Celebrates Authentic Voice.”
“With the rise of artificial intelligence—and its impact on deepfake videos, actors’ contracts, academic honesty, and a vast number of other topics—the line between ‘real’ and ‘fake’ has become increasingly blurred,” states Merriam-Webster.
Other words also stood out in this dictionary’s 2023 data searches, some based on current events. These include:
- Rizz – internet-driven slang meaning romantic appeal, charm, or to seduce
- Deepfake – an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said
- Coronation – literal act of placing a crown on a monarch’s head, a synonym of crowning.
- Dystopian – of, relating to, or being an imagined world or society in which people lead dehumanized, fearful lives
- EGOT – One of the rarest distinctions an entertainer can achieve is winning four particular awards: the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar, and the Tony… aka the EGOT.
- X – Elon Musk’s rebranding of Twitter as X sent many people to the dictionary to learn more. It doesn’t just represent a letter and its sound, but also has various meanings and functions: for example, it stands for “an unknown quantity,” it’s a symbol for the act of multiplication, and it is used as a substitute for “by” in measurements, as in “The room was 10’x15’.”
- Implode – When a submersible attempting to visit the wreck of the Titanic disappeared in June, the search made international headlines. Titan, the world eventually learned, had imploded, which means to burst inward.
- Doppelgänger – refer to a living person that closely resembles another living person—that is, a double; or it can refer to the opposite side of one’s personality.
- Covenant – defined as “a formal, solemn, and binding agreement” or “a written agreement or promise.”
- Indict – defined as “to charge with a crime by the finding or presentment of a jury (such as a grand jury) in due form of law.”
- Elemental – a variation of of element which means “any of the four substances air, water, fire, and earth formerly believed to compose the physical universe.”
- Kibbutz – a communal farm or settlement in Israel.
- Deadname – the name that a transgender person was given at birth and no longer uses upon transitioning.
Hallucinate
Dictionary.com has defined the 2023 Word of the Year as: Hallucinate.
hallucinate [ huh-loo-suh-neyt ] – (of artificial intelligence) to produce false information contrary to the intent of the user and present it as if true and factual.
verb
Example: When chatbots hallucinate, the result is often not just inaccurate but completely fabricated.
The editor’s of Dictionary.com decided the use of artificial intelligence (AI) will forever change how we work, learn, create, etc. So to determine the word of the year, they asked AI to use lexicography and data science to choose a single word that at this moment, best represents AI’s many profound ramifications for the future of language and life.
AI chose hallucinate.
“We added this sense of hallucinate to our dictionary just this year. If this is the first time you’re learning about it, be prepared to start encountering the word—and what it refers to—with increasing frequency. Like AI itself, the word hallucinate is on an upward trajectory,” according to Dictionary.com.
Here are other words that made Dictionary.com’s 2023 Word of the Year short list that include:
- strike
- rizz
- wokeism
- indicted
- wildfire
The Cambridge Dictionary agreed with this assessment and also picked “hallucinate” as their word fo the year.
Rizz
The Oxford Dictionary has chosen the slang term of “rizz” as its word of the year. Similar to Merriam-Webster, the Oxford Dictionary defines rizz as a whole lot of charisma.
“Pertaining to someone’s ability to attract another person through style, charm, or attractiveness, this term is from the middle part of the word ‘charisma’, which is an unusual word formation pattern. Other examples include ‘fridge’ (refrigerator) and ‘flu’ (influenza),” the Oxford Dictionary states.
Other finalists for the Oxford Dictionary are:
- Prompt – An instruction given to an artificial intelligence program, algorithm, etc., which determines or influences the content it generates.
- Situationship – A romantic or sexual relationship that is not considered to be formal or established.
- Swiftie – An enthusiastic fan of the singer Taylor Swift.
Now you’ve added some words to your personal lexicon. We hope you rizz it up this New Year, whether you’re coupled, single, or in a situationship; but whatever the identity, cheers with a glass of champagne to the Swifties in your life and try not to hallucinate.
