Oxford Dictionary names ´words of the year´

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) announced Monday for the first time that it has chosen not to name one single word of the year, but many words for the "unprecedented" year 2020, reported Xinhua.

Describing 2020 as "a year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single word," OED said Monday that there were too many words to sum up the events of 2020.

Tracking its vast corpus of more than 11 billion words found in web-based news, blogs and other text sources, its lexicographers revealed what the dictionary described as "seismic shifts in language data and precipitous frequency rises in new coinage" over the past 12 months.

Most words of the year are coronavirus-related, including coronavirus, lockdown, circuit-breaker, support bubbles, keyworkers, furlough and face masks.