The Word of the Year category is...
The Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year has a shortlist consisting of one word from each of our fifteen (sixteen including COVID-19) categories. While the titles are sometimes self-explanatory, our editors have expanded on the category titles to give us a better understanding of what each group encapsulates.
- Agriculture - related to farming practices, equipment and produce.
- Arts - including literature, film, fine arts and music.
- Business - associated with finance and corporations.
- Colloquial - informal and slang language.
- Communication - how we talk, write and interact with each other.
- COVID-19 - related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Eating and drinking - food, beverages and cooking.
- Environment - the natural world, and our effect on it.
- Fashion - clothing, accessories and trends.
- General interest - everything else!
- Health - medical, psychological and well-being.
- Internet - online terminology.
- Politics - government and elections.
- Social interest - human interactions, families and relationships.
- Sport - exercise, physical and mental competitions.
- Technology - computers, robotics and machinery.
As you can see, this has covered a vast amount of ground for human society, and even has the very handy "General interest" category to pull in anything that doesn't quite fit.
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Most of the words are pretty obscure. 'Delta' has to be the out-and-out winner. Remember when Oxford Dictionaries picked 'selfie' as the word of the year - that was a stayer and a true winner. An all-too-clever but passing neologism is no contender for me.