Demure? Brain rot? Oxford announces shortlist for 2024 Word of the Year: Cast your vote
In a year of nonstop news and cultural moments, what word will capture the tone of 2024?
Oxford University Press has narrowed the list down to six words, it announced Thursday, and you can help choose which one will be the winner.
With a rollercoaster of a presidential election, the Paris Olympics, a total solar eclipse, multiple hurricanes and a continued rotation of TikTok trends, language has adapted to describe this moment in time.
"Since 2004, we’ve aimed to provide a window into language and cultural change through theOxford Word of the Year," president of Oxford Languages Casper Grathwohl said in an emailed statement. "The 2024 shortlist represents a snapshot of the topics that have caught our interest and imagination and kept us talking."
The following words were found by Oxford University Press experts to have gained a spike in usage and prominence this year. The shortlist definitions were provided by Oxford.
Cast your vote here. Voting remains open until Thursday, Nov. 28. The winner will be announced on Dec. 2.
2023 has got 'rizz':Oxford's previous Word of the Year
Lore
Noun: "A body of (supposed) facts, background information, and anecdotes relating to someone or something, regarded as knowledge required for full understanding or informed discussion of the subject in question."
Brain rot
Noun: "Supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration."
Dynamic pricing
Noun: "The practice of varying the price for a product or service to reflect changing market conditions; in particular, the charging of a higher price at a time of greater demand."
Dynamic pricing:Wendy's to test out dynamic pricing model as soon as next year, menu prices to fluctuate
Demure
Adjective: "Of a person: reserved or restrained in appearance or behavior. Of clothing: not showy, ostentatious, or overly revealing."
Demure:Brat summer is almost over. Get ready for 'demure' fall, a new viral TikTok trend.
Slop
Noun: "Art, writing, or other content generated using artificial intelligence, shared and distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way, and characterized as being of low quality, inauthentic, or inaccurate."
Fighting misinformation:How to keep from falling for fake news videos
Romantasy
Noun: "A genre of fiction combining elements of romantic fiction and fantasy, typically featuring themes of magic, the supernatural, or adventure alongside a central romantic storyline."
Romantasy recommendations:Spicy fantasy books to read after ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’
2023 words of the year
In 2023, Oxford University Press named "rizz," understood as short for "charisma" as the word of the year.
It was a far cry from Dictionary.com, which chose "hallucinate," a word that describes false information produced by artificial intelligence, as the 2023 word of the year.
2024 word of the year from Collins English Dictionary
This year, Collins English Dictionary already pronounced "brat" as its 2024 word of the year.
Contributing: Greta Cross
Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected], and follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley.
