A WORDY CELEBRATION OF ALL THINGS LEXICAL,
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Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Episode 81: Words of the Year 2024
Every year, lexicographers and marketing departments select a word of the year, and apparently not super successfully — there is rarely consensus. This year, however, might be the year of slop.
Slop was noted as the word of 2025 by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the Economist magazine, and Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary (which went with AI slop).
There is not total uniformity, though, on what word captured the spirit of 2025. Oxford English Dictionary selected rage bait, and UK dictionaries Cambridge and Collins went with parasocial and vibe coding. Dictionary.com went with the undefined 6-7.
Next up in word of the year season is the American Dialect Society, whose members will gather to discuss the words of the year and vote on winners in several
Past chats
TWC 76: Karen Yin, author of The Conscious Style Guide, a "roadmap for writing and speaking with sensitivity and awareness"
TWC 77: Danica Salazar of the Oxford English Dictionary, talking about new entries reflecting Australian English
TWC 78: Ben Yagoda, author of "Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English," talking about English expressions making their way to the U.S.
The That Word Chat words of the year 2024 panel is, from top left, Mark Gwynn, Fiona McPherson, Lynne Murphy, Wendalyn Nichols, Peter Sokolowski, Kelly Wright and Ben Zimmer.
categories in New Orleans on Jan. 9. Nominations forwords are being accepted until the very end of 2025.
After that season-ending event, we will gather a stellar group of lexicographers together for the annual That Word Chat Word of the Year episode on Jan. 13, 2026.
Our panel this year includes Kelly Wright and Ben Zimmer from the American Dialect Society, Fiona McPherson from Oxford English Dictionary, Peter Sokolowski from Merriam-Webster, Lynne Murphy of the University of Sussex and president of the American Dictionary Society, and John Kelly, formerly of Dictionary.com, who chose an etymology of the year for his Mashed Radish blog.
Sign up below for the Zoom link to the live show, then join us at 4:30 p.m. ET (21:30 UTC) on Tuesday, Jan. 14.
TWC 75: Cory Doctorow, prolific science fiction author, activist and journalist, on his books, and monopolies in tech and publishing
TWC 74: Erin Brenner winner of the ACES Robinson Prize and author of The Chicago Guide for Freelance Editors
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TWC 71: Maggie Smith and Connie Schultz, two accomplished Ohio writers in different genres and first-time children’s book authors
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TWC 69: Mignon Fogarty and the release party of The Grammar Daily: 365 Quick Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl
TWC 68: Megan Rosenbloom, author of Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin
TWC 67: Daniel Heuman, CEO of Intelligent Editing, on the future of artificial intelligence in editing and a look at a new AI tool for writers
TWC 66: Jeff Jarvis, internet pioneer and CUNY professor, talking about the former age of print and the future of online communication
TWC 65: Maggie Lorenz on her post-Bee cool-down, just after the Scripps National Spelling Bee, with some of the inside scoop
TWC 63: Roy Peter Clark, America’s writing coach talks about his latest book, Tell It Like It Is: A Guide to Clear and Honest Writing
TWC 61: Copy editor Amy J. Schneider on her new book, Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction
TWC 58: Joshua Blackburn, game designer and quizmaster and a chance to play the new League of the Lexicon
TWC 56: Kelly Wright, a sociolinguist specializing in linguistic discrimination and its institutional outcomes
TWC 53: The brothers Zimmer, Ben and Carl, talking about writing about words and science
TWC 52: Danica Salazar of the Oxford English Dictionary and plans for the Oxford Dictionary of African American English
TWC 60: Gael Spivak, on the International Organization for Standardization's new standards for plain language
TWC 55: Ryan North, author, illustrator, supervillain consultant, polymath and creator of Dinosaur Comics and more
TWC 50: Dennis Duncan of the University College London talking about his "Index, A History of the"
TWC 59: Words of the Year 2022, featuring an international panel of linguists and lexicographers
TWC 54: Ellen Jovin, author of Rebel With A Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian
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TWC 43: Editing superstars Denise Cowle and Louise Harnby, co-hosts of The Editing Podcast
TWC 48: Half dozen guests representing the dictionaries and organizations that selected a word of the year for 2021
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TWC 45: Fred Shapiro, editor of the updated edition of "The New Yale Book of Quotations"
TWC 44: Editor and sensitivity reader Crystal Shelley, creator of the Conscious Language Toolkits for Editors and Writers