Oxford Dictionaries declares ‘toxic’ the 2018 word of the year

Oxford Dictionaries picked “toxic” as its word of the year, saying the term reflects the ethos, mood and preoccupations of 2018.

“In 2018, toxic added many strings to its poisoned bow becoming an intoxicating descriptor for the year’s most talked about topics,” the Oxford University Press, publisher of Oxford Dictionaries, said on its website this week. “It is the sheer scope of its application, as found by our research, that made toxic the stand-out choice for the Word of the Year title.”

{mosads}The publisher said “toxic” experienced a 45 percent increase in searches on oxforddicitionaries.com in 2018. It also notes that the word was used in a variety of contexts this year, both literally and figuratively.

“Chemical” and “masculinity” were the two most-used words in conjunction with “toxic,” according to the publisher, which noted that the term was widely used in conversations about subjects such as sexual harassment and politics.

But “toxic” wasn’t the only word to catch the publisher’s attention this year. It noted that terms such as “gaslighting,” “incel” and “techlash” made its short list for word of the year.

Though ‘toxic’ took the #OxfordWOTY title, it’s by no means the only word that caught our attention this year. Find out about the words that made our shortlist at the Word of the Year hub: https://t.co/ulAkRigNlR pic.twitter.com/itJENyr0JK

— Oxford Dictionaries (@OxfordWords) November 15, 2018

Oxford Dictionaries’ 2017 word of the year was “youthquake.” Dictionary.com said “complicit” was its 2017 word of the year.