Merriam-Webster Selects “Word of the Year”

It's that time of the year again, the moment you have all be waiting for since last year has finally come! Merriam-Webster has named it's word of the year for 2019! Don't get excited all at once now. In the annual event that has been going on since 2003, Merriam-Webster selects the word 'they' as the 2019 word of the year.

'They' takes the title from last years word, 'justice'. 'They' was looked up 313% more this year, had a new sense added, and became more common in public and personal communication according to Merriam-Webster.

English famously lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond neatly with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence they has been used for this purpose for over 600 years.

The "Word of the Year" is normally selected due to the impact the word has made on society as well as the events that took place during the year. What do you think about the "Word of the Year"? Do you have a different word you'd replace it with?

Wake up with Jarred Becker every weekday morning from 6-10am on AM 1390 KRFO