Dictionary companies choose same word of the year: pandemic

For the first time, two dictionary companies - Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com - declared the same word as their tops: pandemic. Photo: Pixabay

In the land of lexicography, out of the whole of the English language, 2020's word of the year is a vocabulary of one.

For the first time, two dictionary companies - Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com - declared the same word as their tops: pandemic. A third couldn't settle on just one so issued a 16-page report instead along the same lines, noting that a world of once-specialised terms entered the mainstream during the Covid-19 crisis.