Collins English Dictionary has just announced the 2024 Word of the Year. Let’s discuss this word, as well as some of the runners up, in today’s Thinking in English episode!
Listen Here!
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTubeInteractive Transcript!
You Can Now Read and Listen at the Same Time With an Interactive Transcript!
Introduction
Every year, Collins English Dictionary announces the “word of the year.”
The “word of the year” is an English word that has grown in popularity, influence, and use over the past 12 months. It reflects ongoing trends and has often entered popular culture.
Many dictionaries choose their own “word of the year”, so today I am going to focus on the word selected by Collins English dictionary as well as the runners up in their competition.
While many of the words I’m going to discuss and talk about today are not part of my everyday vocabulary, they have proved particularly popular with younger people and online audiences.
I’ll make a bonus Patreon follow up episode going over some of the word of the year runners-up and contenders that I didn’t have time to mention today. I’ll also link to the main Collins Dictionary word of the year article in the blog post and description.
That’s enough of an introduction – what is the 2024 Collins English Dictionary word of the year?
Brat
The Collins English Dictionary Word of the year is…. BRAT!
On June 7th, Charlie XCX (the very popular British singer and performer) released her most recent music album, titled “Brat.” From that moment onwards, the album, the word “brat”, and her personality has deeply influenced popular culture.
Collins Dictionary defines the word brat as an adjective meaning “characterised by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.” While you all probably know the words “confident” and “independent” already, “hedonistic” might be new for you. Hedonistic, and its noun form hedonism, are related to the pursuit of pleasure – it is doing things that cause or give you pleasure and enjoyment.
So “Brat” is an adjective used to describe something confident, independent, and related to pursuing pleasure.
This is very different to the defintion of “brat” that I grew up knowing and using. Before Charlie XCX, a brat was “a child, especially one who behaves badly.”
This year the word has become an attitude or approach to life. It has influenced fashion trends, TikTok dances, and has even entered politics.
In the UK, some political parties and candidates in the UK general election used CharlieXCX’s album cover in campaigns. And “Kamala is brat” has become a popular meme on TikTok among young people – referring to the Vice President of the USA.
I recommend searching online for the “Brat” album cover. The artwork has proved particularly influential – the lime green colour and simplicity has influenced fashion and style.
Honestly, “brat” is quite difficult to simply define. It is an attitude that combines rebelliousness with self-acceptance. It is not a word that I will be adding to my regular vocabulary, but I think it is an interesting choice for the word of the year!
Runners Up
So, Brat is the 2024 word of the year, but how about the runners up? In the rest of this episode, I’ll look at a few more of trending words from this year that Collins Dictionary have highlighted in their blog article. I’ll also release a bonus Patreon episode later this week discussing any terms I didn’t have time to cover today!
Anti-Tourism
Earlier this year I released an episode on “overtourism” which discussed the impact of mass tourism in various places around the world. In recent years, certain destinations have experienced more visitors than ever before, and have also experienced problems caused by increasing numbers of tourists.
In places like Barcelona in Spain and Venice in Italy, increased tourism is driving prices higher, damaging the environment, and making life more difficult for the normal residents of the cities.
I live in Japan which is having similar issues. Earlier this year, tourists were causing so many problems at Mt Fuji that the local government put up walls to stop people gathering to take photos, certain streets in the city of Kyoto closed completely to tourists due to rude behaviour, and restaurants across Tokyo have started to refuse non-Japanese speaking customers.
This increase in tourism across the world is contributing to a backlash against tourism – something that could perhaps be called “anti-tourism.” And “anti-tourism” is one of the runners up for the Word of the Year.
Anti-tourism is defined as “opposition to or action against large-scale tourism.”
This has specifically been noted in Spain. In April, protests against tourism began in the Canary Islands (in fact, six protesters went on hunger strike against major tourism projects on Tenerife). They then spread to other popular Spanish tourist destinations including cities on the southern coast of Spain and the city of Barcelona.
The protests are against the prioritisation of tourism by governments and organisations. While tourism is a major industry in Spain and brings a lot of money into the country, many Spanish people are angry that Spanish cities are prioritising the experience of tourists over the lives of Spanish people. The tourist industry is increasing rental prices and prices of restaurants and hotels and creating precarious jobs.
I think we will see anti-tourism spreading to more places.
A lot of people I know in Japan are complaining about the crazy prices of hotels in Tokyo. I don’t live in Tokyo right now, but my wife is taking a course over the next few months which requires occasional trips to the capital. 3 years ago, you could find cheap hotels in Tokyo for around 10,000 yen. Now we are struggling to find anywhere to stay for less than 20,000 yen.
Hotels know they can make more money from tourists (who are willing to pay far higher prices than most Japanese people can afford) but are then pricing out Japanese customers.
Perhaps we will see more anti-tourism in Japan and other popular tourist destinations!
Supermajorities
At the beginning of summer, the UK held a general election. After 14 years of Conservative party government, the UK voted for change and elected the Labour party led by the new Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
You can go back a few months and listen to my podcast episodes on the UK election that I recorded at the time.
Labour didn’t just win the election, they won by a landslide. The UK has 650 seats in parliament and Labour won 411 of them. The next largest party, the Conservative Party, only won 121 seats.
Labour doesn’t just have a majority; they have a supermajority. Supermajority has been selected as one of the Words of the Year by Collins and means a “large majority in a legislative assembly that enables a government to pass laws without effective scrutiny.”
Basically, Labour has so many members of parliament and will dominate the UK politics to such an extent that they can really do whatever they want to do. The opposition parties will struggle to balance or limit the influence of Labour.
There is something similar in the USA. While Donald Trump and the Republican party don’t technically have a massive majority like the Labour party in the UK, they do now have majorities in both house of Congress and control the Presidency (and the Supreme Court of the USA too).
There is another meaning of supermajority. A supermajority is also a threshold that has to be met for a certain change to occur in a country – for example if the USA wants to change their constitution, it requires a supermajority of votes in both houses of Congress (66% of people in Congress need to vote in favour). A majority would be 50%, so supermajority is higher!
Romantasy
Moving away from politics, Collins have also selected the word romantasy as a Word of the Year. Romantasy is a portmanteau (a word made by combining two different words together) that combines the words “romance” and “fantasy.”
This type of fiction has been around for a while, but over the past few years the term has become increasingly popular. The romantasy genre has dominated best seller charts.
I’ve never read any examples of romantasy, but I have heard of the author Sarah J Maas. Her series, which include the Throne of Glass or A Court of Thorns and Roses, have nearly sold 40 million total copies around the world and are increasing in popularity!
Yapping
The final word of the year contender I’ll talk about in today’s episode is “yapping.”
Yapping is defined by Collins as “talking at length, especially about inconsequential matters.” Basically, talking a lot about things that don’t matter.
Yap is an old word that is been part of the English language for hundreds of years. Originally it referred to the sound of an animal – we still describe the bark of certain dogs, especially small dogs, as yapping.
Recently, this word has become incredibly popular online to describe people who like to talk too much, especially in an annoying way.
I wonder if any of you think that I’m yapping right now…? I hope not!
Final Thought
Today I have introduced you all to the Collins Dictionary 2024 Word of the Year: Brat.
I then also looked at a few of the runners up mentioned by Collins – anti-tourism, supermajority, romantasy, and yapping.
There are more runners-up mentioned by Collins – I’ll release a bonus episode later this week discussing these on Patreon (subscribe now if you are interested)!
Compared to previous years, I’m not sure how useful these words of the year are. Last year was a lot of AI terms, but in 2024 Collins have focused on internet trends and pop culture.
What do you think? What is your personal word of the year?
Extended Vocabulary List
Become a Patreon Subscriber to Access the Extended Vocabulary List!
Vocabulary Games and Activities!
Learn and practice vocabulary from this Thinking in English episode.
Practice using 5 different study games and activities – including writing, listening, and memorisation techniques!
Flashcards
Matching Game
Learning Game
Test Yourself
Listening and Spelling
Do you want to Think in English?
I’m so excited that you found my blog and podcast!! If you don’t want to miss an article or an episode, you can subscribe to my page!
