Oxford dictionary names ‘vax’ as word of year

By Ali Murat Alhas

ANKARA (AA) - Oxford English Dictionary on Monday announced “vax” was word of the year.

"Vax is our 2021 Word of the Year. When our lexicographers began digging into our English language corpus data, it quickly became apparent that vax was a particularly striking term," it said, referring to the abbreviation of vaccination.

According to the statement, vax was a relatively rare word in the corpus till this year, but by September it was over 72 times more used than the same time last year.

As the COVID-19 crisis escalated across the world in 2020, no single word was referred to as word of the year last year.