Merriam-Webster’s 2018 Word of the Year Is “Justice”

Merriam-Webster just announced their Word of the Year for 2018 . . . and they went with "justice."

They saw a 74% increase in the number of searches for it compared to last year.  The two big reasons were the ongoing investigation by the Justice Department and the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

They also revealed their 10 runners-up this year.  And next on the list is "nationalism."  It briefly saw an 8,000% spike in searches after President Trump called himself a nationalist during a speech in October.

The other runners-up this year are "pansexual" . . . "lodestar," which jumped in popularity after an op-ed in the "New York Times" back in September . . . "epiphany" . . . "feckless" . . . "laurel", because of the "laurel/yanny" debate . . . "pissant," following a story about Tom Brady where a DJ in Boston used it . . .

. . . "respect," which saw a huge spike after the death of Aretha Franklin . . . "maverick," after John McCain passed away . . . and "Excelsior," a word Stan Lee loved to use.  He passed away back in November.

Merriam-Webster is always the last major dictionary to announce its Word of the Year.  Dictionary.com went with "misinformation" this year . . . Oxford Dictionaries went with "toxic" . . . and Collins Dictionary went with the term "single-use."