"Feminism" Is the 2017 Word of the Year

From Redbook

In a year that started with the Women's March and ended with "Silence Breakers" being named Time's Person of the Year, it seems only fitting that Merriam-Webster would announce "feminism" as the word of 2017.

Editors at the dictionary made the announcement early Tuesday morning and explained on the dictionary's website that "feminism" was one of the top searched words in 2017 and had a 70 percent increase over 2016.

Several news events caused spikes in lookups, including the Women's March in late January, the release of The Handmaid's Tale and Wonder Woman. There were also spikes in late February surrounding discussions about whether feminism was inclusive, due to Kellyanne Conway's statement that she finds it difficult to call herself a feminist "in the classic sense because it seems to be very anti-male, and it certainly is very pro-abortion."

There were also spikes toward the end of the year in conjunction with the myriad news reports surrounding sexual assault, sexual misconduct, and the popularity of the #MeToo hashtag.

Politics also drove a number of the year's other popular searches: The word "complicit" saw several spikes during former FBI Director James Comey's firing as well as when Ivanka Trump said she didn't know what "it means to be complicit." The word "recuse" also saw several spikes in connection to Jeff Sessions, including his involvement with the Russia inquiry.

Now going back to "feminism," since people seem to be curious (and oftentimes confused) about the definition, according to Merriam-Webster, feminism means "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes" and "organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests."

And now, onto 2018.

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