'Polarization' is Merriam-Webster's 2024 word of the year
«Polarization means division, but it's a very specific kind of division,» said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday's announcement. «Polarization means that we are tending toward the extremes rather than toward the center.»
The election was so divisive, many American voters went to the polls with a feeling that the opposing candidate was an existential threat to the nation. According to VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters, about 8 in 10 Kamala Harris voters were very or somewhat concerned that Donald Trump's views — but not Harris' — were too extreme, while about 7 in 10 Trump voters felt the same way about Harris — but not Trump.
The Merriam-Webster entry for «polarization» reflects scientific and metaphorical definitions. It's most commonly used to mean «causing strong disagreement between opposing factions or groupings.» Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site, chooses its word of the year based on data, tracking a rise in search and usage.
Last year's pick was «authentic.» This year's comes as large swaths of the U.S. struggle to reach consensus on what is real.
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