What different cultures’ words of the year tell us about 2024

Dictionary Merriam-Webster’s word of the year was “polarization,” a choice that reflected the US election, defined by deep political and social divisions.

“The elections were clearly the story of the year,” Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large said. “And polarization is the term that has been used by everyone.”

Among the runners up was “totality,” chosen to mark a total solar eclipse in April that was visible across North America.

China’s “buzzwords of the year” range from the predictable to the cerebral. One list, compiled by the National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center, chose to highlight several Chinese government priorities, including “China Travel” (Beijing has been trying to boost tourism), “Global South,” and “New Quality Productive Forces,” which is leader Xi Jinping’s concept for economic growth.

A different list put together by a Shanghai-based linguistics journal explores socio-cultural sentiments, including “ban wei” (“smell of work”), a term that describes when someone looks haggard from working too much. Another, “city bu city” (“city or not city”), echoes a meme created after a US tourist questioned whether a place or activity could be considered urban or cosmopolitan.

The words “primarily signify the advent of the intelligent era, where the younger generation — especially those born after 2000 — has become the focal point of social attention,” the South China Morning Post wrote.

“Brain rot” is Oxford University Press’ word of the year, chosen by a public vote. The term describes “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state,” often induced by consuming trivial online content. Henry David Thoreau is believed to have used “brain rot” for the first time in literature in his 1854 book Walden, but the phrase became mainstream this year as more people search for language to describe the sprawling morass of poor content on the internet.

The Cambridge Dictionary chose a different internet-friendly term — “manifest” — meaning willing something to happen, which “jumped from being mainly used in the self-help community and on social media to being mentioned widely across mainstream media.”

A literary panel in Japan chose a phrase many outside the country are likely unfamiliar with: “Fute hodo,” which is the nickname for a hit TV drama. The show, the name of which translates in English to “Extremely Inappropriate!,” follows a teacher who time-travels from 1986 to 2024 and encounters cultural and generational differences.

“Rather than simply portraying the views of the past as backward, or the modern ‘woke’ era as misguided, the show strives to show that in all ages the key to mutual understanding is opening up to one another,” Nippon.com wrote.

Judges also noted that “2024 was a challenging one for those seeking bright spots.” One finalist was “uragane mondai,” or “kickbacks issue.” The choice reflected a political scandal over undocumented campaign funds that snowballed this year, leading to Japan’s former prime minister resigning as party leader in August.

Germany’s winner was purely political: “Ampel-Aus,” which directly translates to “traffic light off.” It references the collapse and unpopularity of the country’s coalition government, which is known as the “traffic light coalition” because it includes the parties that use red, yellow, and green as their signature colors.

Other finalists, according to the Society for the German Language, were more geopolitically apt: “Rechtsdrift” (“drift to the right”) and “Kriegstüchtig” (“fit for war”).