The Collins Word of the Year for 2023 has been announced, and it’s the abbreviation of artificial intelligence (AI), according to the dictionary publisher.
Lexicographers at Collins Dictionary observed a significant “acceleration” in the usage of the term, making it the dominant topic of conversation in 2023.
Collins Managing Director, Alex Beecroft, noted, “We’ve seen AI take center stage this year as it rapidly evolved and seamlessly integrated into our daily lives, much like email, streaming, or other technologies that were once considered futuristic but are now commonplace.”
The selection of the Word of the Year is based on an analysis of the Collins Corpus, a vast database that contains over 20 billion words gathered from written materials like websites, newspapers, magazines, and books from all around the world. This database is supplemented with spoken language from sources like radio, television, and everyday conversations, with new data continually incorporated to assist dictionary editors in recognizing new words and their meanings as they emerge.
“AI’s extensive use, as tracked in our Collins Corpus, is always intriguing, and there’s no doubt that it has been a major conversation topic in 2023,” Beecroft added.
Among the other notable words on Collins’ list is “nepo baby,” which describes the offspring of celebrities who have succeeded in the same industries as their famous parents, a term that has gained popularity.
