Most Popular Words of the Decade

One of the most exciting things about language is that it’s always changing and transforming – even in a very short span of time! This decade has seen the birth of many words and phrases, some of which have become the most popular words of the past few years.

Here are some of the most popular words of the last decade, as reported by the Global Language Monitor. Do you remember adding these to your vocabulary?

Global Warming (2000)

The #1 catchphrase of the decade, global warming has been a buzzword for the past 10 years. With a rise in public awareness about climate change and greenhouse gases, more people than ever are using this popular phrase.

Chad (2000)

You might remember this word from the US presidential election of 2000, when chads, bits of punched paper ballots, seemed to hold the key to the Florida results. This most popular word lingered on the linguistic radar and in government translation after the election.

Blog (2003)

It might seem like a long time since this most popular tech word was a novelty, but blogs, a contraction of the phrase “web logs,” allowed the public to post their thoughts to the web and get feedback from readers around the world.

Texting (2004)

As cell phones became more popular, texting — sending text messages from phone to phone — became a common way to stay in the know. Although it began as a most popular word among teens, texting is now universally-recognized lingo.

Sustainable (2006)

Awareness about global warming made sustainable practices a must for many Americans in 2006. “Sustainable” movements encouraged preserving natural resources; people started eating locally and cutting down on gas miles because of this most popular word.

Truthiness (2006)

If it doesn’t sound like a word, that’s because it wasn’t one until 2006, when TV host Stephen Colbert used it to describe truth that comes “from the gut” and not through facts. It has now become one of the most popular words – even though it was created only recently.

Google (2007)

Although the search engine existed for years before 2007, “to google” something became one of the most popular words this year in verb form. It’s now become synonymous with looking things up on the web and is critical to technical translations.

Subprime (2007)

This most popular word came into common parlance during the mortgage crisis of 2007. It was used to describe mortgages or loans given to unlikely candidates, which lead to many people defaulting on their payments when the housing bubble collapsed.

Bailout (2008)

Another one of the most popular words in the beginning of the recession, a “bailout” came to refer to a financial package given to a company to save it from bankruptcy. The US government famously gave certain banks, including Bank of America and Citigroup, bailout packages to help recover recession losses.

Twitter (2008)

The latest social media craze to hit the web, Twitter — a short-form blogging platform that allows users to “tweet” short updates — has over 6 million visitors, and counting. The name, based on the its original dictionary definition “a short burst of inconsequential information,” became one of last year’s most popular words.