word

Do you know Dictionary.com’s 2022 word of the year?

It’s ‘woman’! About time, we say

Dictionarary.com has announced its 2022 word of the year and it is a word we all use frequently, if not every day — ‘woman.’ According to the website, the word registered a more than 1417% increase in online searches from last year. Writing about the choice, Dictionary.com stated, “It’s one of the oldest words in the English language. One that’s fundamental not just to our vocabulary but to who we are as humans. And yet it’s a word that continues to be a source of intense personal importance and societal debate. It’s a word that’s inseparable from the story of 2022.”

The website also states that several incidents this year resulted in a search spike, the most prominent one being in March when US Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to be a US Supreme Court justice, was asked by Senator Marsha Blackburn to define the word ‘woman.’ Dictionary.com’s choice of bringing to the spotlight a commonly used word but one that’s loaded with meaning for countless reasons is laudable. This is a hint that conversations have sparked around defining and redefining what womanhood is and what it entails. Here’s looking forward with hope that it’s a brilliant way in which society will become more inclusive and egalitarian, in more ways than one.

— Sohini Dasgupta