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,

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