Merriam Webster’s Word of the Year for 2016 Is Totally Unbelievable
2016 has been one heck of a year. There’s no way we could have predicted what the past (nearly) 365 days had in store for us. From an election that still has us having trouble accepting the results to WTF beauty trends, it’s been a year like no other. That’s why, despite Merriam Webster’s Word of the Year for 2016 being wildly apt, it’s also totally unbelievable… in fact, it’s surreal.
As wild, as weird, as unexpected as the events of the past 12 months have been, it’s no wonder that the majority of us were feeling totally out-of-touch with reality. That’s why the word-dominating folks over at Merriam Webster have tracked the most searched term and deemed “surreal” as the word of the year.
Their blog post explains, “The Word of the Year for 2016 is surreal, with lookups of the word spiking for different reasons over the course of the year. Beginning with the Brussels terror attacks in March, major spikes included the days following the coup attempt in Turkey and the terrorist attack in Nice, with the largest spike in lookups for surreal following the U.S. election in November.” Yep, that makes (super sad) sense.
And though we totally get why “surreal” would be such a popular word this year, we can only wonder what the weirdest, most shocking, most surreal moment of 2016 really was.
What would you deem the most surreal moment of 2016? Tweet us @BritandCo!
(h/t Time; photo via Volanthevist/Getty)
