Dictionary.com's Word of the Year Is Xenophobia

Over the summer, Dictionary.com added "Pokémon," "woke," "butthurt," and "ghosting," but not a single one of those words was chosen as 2016's word of the year. Instead, the online dictionary went with "xenophobia," a noun that the online dictionary defines as "fear or hatred of foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers" and "fear or dislike of the customs, dress, etc., of people who are culturally different from oneself." The word entered the English language in the late 1800s and originates from two Greek terms, "xénos," which means "stranger, guest," and "phóbos," which means "fear, panic."

So how was "xenophobia" chosen? Dictionary.com explained in a blog post that the word of the year selection "embodies a major theme resonating deeply in the cultural consciousness over the prior 12 months." This year, they note, fear of the "other" played a huge role in several prominent news stories, like Brexit and Donald Trump's presidential campaign and election.

Dictionary.com CEO Liz McMillan said in a statement: "Xenophobia and other words tied to global news and political rhetoric reflected the worldwide interest in the unfortunate rise of fear of otherness in 2016, making it the clear choice for Word of the Year. While we can never know the exact reasons why xenophobia trended in our lookups this year, this reflects a desire in our users to understand the significant discourse surrounding global events."

On June 24 of this year—the day after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union—searches for "xenophobia" saw a 938 percent surge in lookups.

The second biggest spike for "xenophobia" occurred near the end of June when President Barack Obama insisted in a speech that Trump's supposedly populist rhetoric was actually an example of "nativism or xenophobia or worse."