In the era of deepfakes and post-truth, with the rise of artificial intelligence and Elon Musk’s transformation of Twitter into X, “authentic” is the 2023 Merriam-Webster word of the year.
Real food. Real voice. And real self. Genuineness as a fake. The dictionary company’s website sees a lot of searches for the word on a regular basis, but this year saw an increase in searches, editor at large Peter Sokolowski told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.
“We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity,” he said ahead of Monday’s announcement of this year’s word. “What we realize is that when we question authenticity, we value it even more.”
Sokolowski and his colleagues do not investigate why users go to dictionaries and websites to look up words. Instead, they follow the data on lookup spikes and related global events. This time, the interest in being “authentic” climbed consistently rather than experiencing a very large spike at any one point.
There’s “not false or imitation: real, actual,” as in an authentic cockney accent. And there’s “true to one’s own personality, spirit or character.” There’s “worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact.” There’s “made or done the same way as an original.” And, perhaps the most telling, there’s “conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features.”
“Authentic” follows 2022’s choice of “gaslighting.” And 2023 marks Merriam-Webster’s 20th anniversary choosing a top word.
Among the 500,000 words defined online, the company’s data crunchers filter out evergreen words like “love” and “affect” vs. “effect” that are always high in lookups. This year, the wordsmiths also filtered out a large number of five-letter words because Wordle and Quordle players clearly use the company’s website to search for them while playing the daily games, according to Sokolowski.
Sokolowski, a lexicologist, and his colleagues have a slew of runners-up for word of the year that have also drawn unusual attention. They include “X” (lookups spiked in July after Musk’s rebranding of Twitter), “EGOT” (there was a boost in February when Viola Davis achieved that rare quadruple-award status with a Grammy) and “Elemental,” the title of a new Pixar film that had lookups jumping in June.
In no particular order, the following are the Merriam-Webster’s top words for 2023
RIZZ:
It’s slang for “romantic appeal or charm” and appears to be a contraction of charisma. Merriam-Webster added the term to its online dictionary in September, and it has been among the top searches since then, according to Sokolowski.
KIBBUTZ:
Searches for “a communal farm or settlement in Israel” skyrocketed after Hamas militants attacked several near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7. The first kibbutz was established in what is now Israel around 1909.
IMPLODE:
The implosion of the Titan submersible on a commercial expedition to explore the Titanic wreckage on June 18 boosted searches for this word, which means “to burst inward.” “It was a story that completely occupied the world,” said Sokolowski.
DEADNAME:
Merriam-Webster defines this as “the name that a transgender person was given at birth and no longer uses upon transitioning.” Lookups were conducted in response to an onslaught of legislation aimed at restricting LGBTQ+ rights across the country.
DOPPELGANGER:
Sokolowski refers to this as “a word lover’s word.” According to Merriam-Webster, it is a “double,” a “alter ego,” or a “ghostly counterpart.” It is based on German folklore. This year’s book, “Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World,” by Naomi Klein, sparked interest in the term. She uses her own experience of being frequently confused with feminist author and conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf as a springboard into a larger narrative about the insane times we’re all living in.
CORONATION:
According to Sokolowski, King Charles III had one on May 6, sending lookups for the word up 15,681% over the previous year. According to Merriam-Webster, it is “the act or occasion of crowning.”
DEEPFAKE:
According to the dictionary’s definition, it’s “an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said.” Interest peaked after Musk’s lawyers in a Tesla lawsuit claimed that he is frequently the subject of deepfake videos, and again after Ryan Reynolds’ likeness appeared in a fake, AI-generated Tesla ad.
DYSTOPIAN:
Climate chaos sparked interest in the term. So did books, movies, and TV shows designed to entertain. “It’s unusual to me to see a word that is used in both contexts,” Sokolowski said.
COVENANT:
On March 27, after a deadly mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, searches for the term “a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement” spiked. After killing three students and three adults, the shooter was killed by police. This year’s releases of “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” and Abraham Verghese’s long-awaited new novel, “The Covenant of Water,” which Oprah Winfrey chose as a book club pick, also fueled interest. Recently, shortly after U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson was elected House Speaker, a 2022 interview with the Louisiana congressman resurfaced. He talked about how his teen son was his “accountability partner” on Covenant Eyes, software that tracks browser history and sends reports to each partner when porn or other potentially inappropriate content is found.
INDICT:
In addition to fighting a lawsuit that threatens his real estate empire, former President Donald Trump has been indicted on felony charges in four criminal cases in New York, Florida, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.
