Words of 2024

A year of elections, olympians and loads of social media. So what were the words that summed it up as chosen by major dictionaries?

Unsurprisingly it was social media that had the biggest influence on word popularity, but perhaps it’s a little surprising that three of the words have a positive feeling to them. Here they are:

DEMURE /dɪˈmjɔː/ or /dɪˈmjʊə/

Dictionary.com’s word of 2024 became popular on Tik-Tok after Jools Debron used the phrase “Very demure, very mindful”. It sums up a certain type of refined or sophisticated behaviour.

BRAT /brat/

Collins word of the year used to be a noun describing an annoying child, BRAT became an adjective this year meaning hedonistic and youthful. It was introduced as such almost single-handedly by singer Charlie XCX whose latest album (released in ’24) is called… BRAT.

POLARISATION /ˌpəʊlərʌɪˈzeɪʃn/

In a year of popular words changing meaning, Merriam-Webster’s choice was one that didn’t. This year’s American election was clearly at the heart of its surge in use.

MANIFEST /ˈmanɪfɛst/

Cambridge dictionary’s choice took on a new use with many people manifesting about their futures online. It seems to have accelerated around the Olympic and Paralympic games this year with some medal winners talking about manifesting as reason for their success.

BRAIN ROT /ˈbreɪn rɒt/

A compound topped Oxford’s list, referring to the perceived deterioration of your grey matter when consuming social media. Make sure you stress the first word in keeping with most compound nouns!

Let’s see what 2025 has in store! Hopefully it won’t be ENSHITTIFICATION, which was Australian dictionary Macquarie’s choice of 2024, which means the gradual deterioration of a service.

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