Image credit: Cambridge Dictionary
The Cambridge Dictionary has unveiled its Word of the Year for 2024.
Having been looked up on the dictionary’s website almost 130,000 times and having seen a resurgence in its use, the 600-year-old word “manifest” secured the top spot.
Traditionally meaning ‘to show something clearly’, the word manifest is now being used a lot by influencers and entrepreneurs when they talk about their achievements. Many will say they “manifested” something, which means they focused their mind on it to make it become a reality.
In fact, this usage of the word manifest has become so popular in recent times that the new definition was added to the Cambridge Dictionary in May 2023.
Searches for manifest peaked in August this year, attributed to increased attention brought about due to the Olympics and Paralympics, which saw gold medal winners like Simone Biles, Ezra Frech and Mallory Weggemann attributing their achievements to the practice.
Wendalyn Nichols, Publishing Manager, Cambridge Dictionary, said: “When we choose a Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year, we have three considerations: user data, zeitgeist, and language. What word was looked up the most, or spiked? Which one really captures what was happening in that year? And what is interesting about this word from a language point of view?
"Manifest won this year because it increased notably in lookups, its use widened greatly across all types of media, and it shows how the meanings of a word can change over time.”
Last year, we saw artificial intelligence’s impact on our language, with “hallucinate” named Word of the Year in 2023.
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