NEW YORK, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Merriam-Webster announced on Monday its 2024 Word of the Year is "polarization," which it said "happens to be one idea that both sides of the political spectrum agree on."

"We define polarization as 'division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum but become concentrated at opposing extremes,'" Merriam-Webster, an American company publishing reference books and mostly known for its dictionaries, said in a release.

The word was widely used across the U.S. media landscape in 2024. Fox News reported that "Vance's debate answer on immigration crisis shows voter polarization," while MSNBC observed that, "The 2024 presidential election has left our country more polarized than ever." The word was also used to describe divides beyond the U.S. election, as when Forbes warned that in workplaces, "cultural polarization is becoming a pressing challenge," according to the release.

Other words that stood out in Merriam-Webster's lookup data in 2024 are: totality, demure, fortnight, pander, resonate, allision, weird, cognitive, and democracy.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2023 is "authentic." Enditem

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