Merriam-Webster announced “pandemic” as its word of year.
Pandemic is defined by the dictionary as an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affects a significant proportion of the population.
A lexicographer said, “It’s probably the word by which we’ll refer to this period in the future.”
Back on March 11, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
That same day, searches for the word were 115,806 percent higher than on the same date in 2019.
Coronavirus and other related pandemic words, like quarantine, were among the runners up for Merriam-Webster’s word of 2020.
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