Following a year that started with global women's marches and ended with stories of sexual harassment and assault that have brought down powerful men in media, tech, Hollywood and politics, one word has been looked up continually throughout 2017: feminism.
Merriam-Webster announced Tuesday that it's the 2017 word of the year.
No one word can ever encapsulate all the news, events, or stories of a given year," Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster, said in a statement. "But when we look back at the past twelve months and combine an analysis of words that have been looked up much more frequently than during the previous year along with instances of intense spikes of interest because of news events, we see that one word stands out in both categories."
According to a release from Merriam-Webster, look-ups for the word feminism spiked early in the year following the 2017 Women's March, which happened a day after President Donald Trump's inauguration in Washington, in addition to satellite marches across the nation and in several countries around the world.
The word was again highly searched after Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said she did not consider herself a feminist. Most recently, the look-ups for feminism increased after the emergence of the #MeToo movement, where women, and some men, have shared their stories of sexual harassment and assault.
Feminism, according to Merriam-Webster, is defined as both "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes" and "organized activity in support of women's rights and interests."
Politico, December 12, 2017.
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December 12, 2017
