With less than a month left until January, Merriam-Webster has chosen its 2024 Word of the Year, one that has often defined the political landscape of the United States and its candidates. The word, the book company reported,

The dictionary publisher said Americans from competing tribes looked up the definition to better understand divided politics at home and worldwide.

A word that has been used incessantly to describe the fraught state of American politics and society is Merriam-Webster’s 2024 word of the year. That word is “polarization.” Defined as a “division into two sharply distinct opposites,

The results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election rattled the country and sent shockwaves across the world — or were cause for celebration, depending on who you ask. Is it any surprise then that the Merriam-Webster word of the year is “polarization”?

Merriam-Webster's word of the year and list of other top-searched words were influenced by politics, Taylor Swift, TikTok and ChatGPT.

Merriam-Webster has chosen “polarization” as its Word of the Year for 2024. This selection comes on the heels of a highly contested U.S. presidential election, which captured global attention. Merriam-Webster.