Our Word of the Year 2020 is… quarantine. Our data shows it was one of the most highly searched words on the Cambridge Dictionary this year.
Quarantine was the only word to rank in the top five for both search spikes and overall views (more than 183,000 by early November), with the largest spike in searches (28,545) seen the week of 18-24 March, when many countries around the world went into lockdown as a result of COVID-19.
Noticing this spike in searches, our editors were keen to research how people were using the word quarantine, and were interested to find a new meaning emerging: a general period of time in which people are not allowed to leave their homes or travel freely, so that they do not catch or spread a disease.
Research shows the word is being used synonymously with lockdown, particularly in the United States, to refer to a situation in which people stay home to avoid catching the disease.
This new sense of quarantine has now been added to the Cambridge Dictionary, and marks a shift from the existing meanings, which relate to containing a person or animal suspected of being contagious.
The words that people search for reveal not just what is happening in the world, but what matters most to them in relation to those events.
Neither coronavirus nor COVID-19 appeared among the words that Cambridge Dictionary users searched for most this year. We believe this indicates that people have been fairly confident about what the virus is. Instead, users have been searching for words related to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, as evidenced not just by quarantine but by the two runners-up on the shortlist for Word of the Year: lockdown, and pandemic itself.
This interest in quarantine and other related terms was reflected not only in our search statistics, but also in visits to this blog. The most highly viewed blog post this year was Quarantine, carriers and face masks: the language of the coronavirus, which had almost 80,000 views in the first six weeks after it was posted on February 26, and now ranks as the ninth most viewed post in the nearly ten years that the blog has been live. The post covers a range of related terms, such as infectious, contagious, carriers, super spreaders, and symptoms as well as phrases such as contract a virus, a spike in cases, contain the spread, and develop a vaccine.
Our editors regularly monitor a wide range of sources for the new words and meanings that are added monthly to the online dictionary. On the New Words blog, potential new additions are posted weekly for readers to cast their vote on whether they feel these words should be added. In a recent poll, 33 percent of respondents said quaranteam – combining quarantine and team, meaning a group of people who go into quarantine together – should be added to the dictionary. Other suggestions include the portmanteau words quaranteen, coronnial and lockstalgia.
Find out more about our Word of the Year 2020.
21/12/2020
2020 has been a busy year for dictionary makers with a wave of new words and changes in meaning of older words, according to an English language learning expert from Cambridge. Dr Nick Saville from Cambridge Assessment English says English speakers have learned a lot of new vocabulary this year, including Coronavirus, Covid, Furlough, R-Rate and many more, not to mention Zoom.
His comments come as experts from the Cambridge Dictionary announced their word of the year as Quarantine. The Cambridge Dictionary is developed by Cambridge University Press and is the world’s leading online dictionary for learners of English. Experts analysed millions of searches made by users and chose Quarantine as their word of the year. It is a long established word, originally borrowed from 14th century Italian, Quarantena, meaning a period of 40 days. This year it has become widely used in English and many other languages as “a general period of time in which people are not allowed to leave their homes or travel freely, so that they do not catch or spread a disease.”
Dr Nick Saville, who works closely with experts at Cambridge University Press, says:
“Quarantine is a really interesting choice for word of the year, not just because it’s one of the many words that Italian has given to English. It also shows the complexity of English pronunciation, as it looks as if it rhymes with ‘mine’ but actually it sounds like ‘mean’! The Cambridge Dictionary is one of the huge range of resources and services which Cambridge provides for learners. It is great for learners who are preparing for Cambridge English exams because it has the same focus on the way the language is actually used in the real world, so it helps you to develop skills which will be useful throughout your studies and working life.”
The Cambridge Dictionary is the top dictionary website for learners of English in the world. As well as definitions, the Cambridge Dictionary shows how words are used in real-world contexts. Its ‘About Words’ blog, written by language usage experts, helps learners gain confidence in using vocabulary related to specific topics. The most highly viewed blog post this year was ‘Quarantine, carriers and face masks: the language of the coronavirus’, which had almost 80,000 views in the first six weeks after it was posted on February 26, and now ranks as the ninth most viewed About Words post in the nearly ten years that the blog has been live. The post covers a range of related terms, such as infectious, contagious, carriers, super-spreaders, and symptoms, as well as phrases such as contract a virus, a spike in cases, contain the spread, and develop a vaccine.
Find out more about the Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year 2020
Cambridge Dictionary has revealed its word of the pandemic-stricken year as “quarantine”. The dictionary’s editors said that it was the third most searched word of the year, after the words “hello” and “dictionary”, that recur almost every year.
“Quarantine” was searched for the most in between March 18 and 24, 2020 when restrictions began to be imposed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, as per the dictionary. It also stated that the word was chosen since it acquired a new meaning during the lockdown.
“A general period of time in which people are not allowed to leave their homes or travel freely so that they do not catch or spread a disease,” read the dictionary’s meaning to the word.
Not just “quarantine”, other coronavirus-related words, including “pandemic” and “lockdown”, ranked on the dictionary’s most popular list for 2020.
Next week we will be announcing our highly anticipated #WordoftheYear for 2020!
Before we reveal Cambridge Dictionary’s #WordoftheYear2020, we would like to know… what would you pick as your Word of the Year?#CambridgeWOTY pic.twitter.com/TeL96HImoD
— Cambridge Dictionary (@CambridgeWords) November 21, 2020
Other new words added to the dictionary were “HyFlex”, short for hybrid flexible, a term used to describe a style of teaching that sees some students participating in a class virtually while others are also there physically; “Elbow bump” or a friendly greeting that allows people to maintain social distancing.
Wendalyn Nichols, Cambridge Dictionary publishing manager, said, “The words that people search for reveal not just what is happening in the world, but what matters most to them in relation to those events.”
“Neither coronavirus nor Covid-19 appeared among the words that Cambridge Dictionary users searched for most this year.
“We believe this indicates that people have been fairly confident about what the virus is.
“Instead, users have been searching for words related to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, as evidenced not just by ‘quarantine’ but by the two runners-up on the shortlist for Word of the Year: ‘lockdown’, and ‘pandemic’ itself.”
Cambridge Dictionary’s announcement comes after the Oxford English Dictionary revealed its words of the year, announcing for the first time that it has found it impossible to name any single “word of the year”.
Among the words chosen this year were furlough, bushfires, WFH, lockdown, moonshot and new coinages like Covid-19, blursday and covidiot.
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Cambridge Dictionary has announced its 2020 Word of the Year: “quarantine.”
The top word, which sadly is not a shock, was chosen based on data that showed that it was one of the most highly searched words this year.
“Quarantine was the only word to rank in the top five for both search spikes and overall views (more than 183,000 by early November), with the largest spike in searches (28,545) seen in the week of March 18-24 , when many countries around the world went into lockdown as a result of Covid-19,” a release on the word of the year said.
According to a report by Language Magazine, Cambridge Dictionary editors also tracked how people are using the word and discovered the emergence of a new meaning: “a general period of time in which people are not allowed to leave their homes or travel freely, so that they do not catch or spread a disease.”
The new meaning has been added to the dictionary, below the primary definition: “a specific period of time in which a person or animal that has a disease, or may have one, must stay or be kept away from others in order to prevent the spread of the disease.”
“The words that people search for reveal not just what is happening in the world, but what matters most to them in relation to those events,” Cambridge Dictionary publishing manager Wendalyn Nichols told Language Magazine.
Interestingly enough, neither “coronavirus” nor “COVID-19” appeared in the dictionary’s top searches this year.
“We believe this indicates that people have been fairly confident about what the virus is,” the release said. “Instead, users have been searching for words related to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, as evidenced not just by quarantine but by the two runners-up on the shortlist for Word of the Year: lockdown, and pandemic itself.”
Past Word of the Year winners by Cambridge Dictionary include 2019’s “upcycle” and 2018’s “nomophobia.”
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Editors said it was the third most looked-up word overall this year — and comes out on top if you discount words that recur most years.
It edged out other finalist words «pandemic» and «lockdown», which were also among the most looked-up between January and the end of October this year.
There was a surge of searches for quarantine in the week of March 18-24, when restrictions started to be imposed in many countries due to Covid-19.
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Editors tracked how people were using the word quarantine and as a result have added an extra meaning to the dictionary.
This is: «A general period of time in which people are not allowed to leave their homes or travel freely, so that they do not catch or spread a disease.»
It marks a shift from existing meanings that relate to containing a person or animal suspected of being contagious.
Research indicates the word is being used synonymously with lockdown, particularly in the US, to refer to a situation in which people stay home to avoid Covid.
Wendalyn Nichols, Cambridge Dictionary publishing manager, said: «The words that people search for reveal not just what is happening in the world, but what matters most to them in relation to those events.
«Neither coronavirus nor Covid-19 appeared among the words that Cambridge Dictionary users searched for most this year.
«We believe this indicates that people have been fairly confident about what the virus is.
«Instead, users have been searching for words related to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, as evidenced not just by ‘quarantine’ but by the two runners-up on the shortlist for Word of the Year: ‘lockdown’, and ‘pandemic’ itself.»
Several new words have been added to the dictionary this year which relate to the pandemic, including «Covid-19».
Others include «HyFlex», which is short for hybrid flexible and denotes a type of teaching in which some students are physically present in class and others join the same class at the same time from a distance, using the internet.
«Elbow bump», a friendly greeting in which people touch elbows, and «social distancing», to describe the practice of keeping away from others to stop the spread of disease, have also been added.
Editors asked readers in a poll if they thought that a list of other new words should be added to the dictionary.
Many are portmanteau words, which combine the first part of one word with the second part of another, and they are as follows:
— Quaranteam: A group of people who go into quarantine together
— Lockstalgia: A feeling of nostalgia for the lockdown period of the Covid-19 pandemic
— Quaranteen: A teenager in the time of the Covid-19 lockdown
— Coronnial: Someone who was born around the time of the Covid-19 pandemic
It is deemed likely that use of these words will be fleeting, and none of them have been added to the dictionary at this time.
Quarantine was the only word to rank in the top five for both search spikes (28,545) and overall views (more than 183,000 by early November), with the largest spike in searches seen the week of 18-24 March, when many countries around the world went into lockdown as a result of COVID-19.
The Cambridge Dictionary editors have also tracked how people are using quarantine, and have discovered a new meaning emerging: a general period of time in which people are not allowed to leave their homes or travel freely, so that they do not catch or spread a disease. Research shows the word is being used synonymously with lockdown, particularly in the United States, to refer to a situation in which people stay home to avoid catching the disease.
This new sense of quarantine has now been added to the Cambridge Dictionary, and marks a shift from the existing meanings that relate to containing a person or animal suspected of being contagious: a specific period of time in which a person or animal that has a disease, or may have one, must stay or be kept away from others in order to prevent the spread of the disease.
Wendalyn Nichols, Cambridge Dictionary Publishing Manager, said:
“The words that people search for reveal not just what is happening in the world, but what matters most to them in relation to those events. Neither coronavirus nor COVID-19 appeared among the words that Cambridge Dictionary users searched for most this year. We believe this indicates that people have been fairly confident about what the virus is.
“Instead, users have been searching for words related to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, as evidenced not just by quarantine but by the two runners-up on the shortlist for Word of the Year: lockdown, and pandemic itself.”
Cambridge Dictionary is the top dictionary website for learners of English in the world. As well as definitions, the Cambridge Dictionary shows how words are used in real-world contexts. Its ‘About Words’ blog, written by language usage experts, helps learners gain confidence in using vocabulary related to specific topics.
The most highly viewed blog post this year was Quarantine, carriers and face masks: the language of the coronavirus, which had almost 80,000 views in the first six weeks after it was posted on February 26, and now ranks as the ninth most viewed ‘About Words’ post in the nearly ten years that the blog has been live. The post covers a range of related terms, such as infectious, contagious, carriers, super-spreaders, and symptoms, as well as phrases such as contract a virus, a spike in cases, contain the spread, and develop a vaccine.
The Cambridge Dictionary editors regularly monitor a wide range of sources for the new words and meanings that are added monthly to the online dictionary. On the ‘New Words’ blog, potential new additions are posted weekly for readers to cast their vote on whether they feel these words should be added.
In a recent poll, 33% of respondents said quaranteam – combining quarantine and team, meaning a group of people who go into quarantine together – should be added to the dictionary. Other suggestions include the portmanteau words quaranteen, coronial and lockstalgia.
/University Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.
The Cambridge Dictionary has revealed its word of the year for 2020 as “quarantine”, after it took on a new meaning during the coronavirus pandemic.
ditors said that quarantine was the third most looked-up word overall this year – and comes out on top if you discount words that recur most years, “hello” in first and “dictionary” in second.
It edged out other finalist words “pandemic” and “lockdown”, which were also among the most looked-up between January and the end of October this year.
There was a surge of searches for quarantine in the week of March 18-24, when restrictions started to be imposed in many countries due to Covid-19.
Editors tracked how people were using the word quarantine and as a result have added an extra meaning to the dictionary.
This is: “A general period of time in which people are not allowed to leave their homes or travel freely, so that they do not catch or spread a disease.”
It marks a shift from existing meanings that relate to containing a person or animal suspected of being contagious.
Research indicates that the word is being used synonymously with lockdown, particularly in the United States, to refer to a situation in which people stay home to avoid catching the disease.
Wendalyn Nichols, Cambridge Dictionary publishing manager, said: “The words that people search for reveal not just what is happening in the world, but what matters most to them in relation to those events.
“Neither coronavirus nor Covid-19 appeared among the words that Cambridge Dictionary users searched for most this year.
“We believe this indicates that people have been fairly confident about what the virus is.
“Instead, users have been searching for words related to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, as evidenced not just by ‘quarantine’ but by the two runners-up on the shortlist for Word of the Year: ‘lockdown’, and ‘pandemic’ itself.”
Several new words have been added to the dictionary this year which relate to the pandemic, including “Covid-19”.
Others include “HyFlex”, which is short for hybrid flexible and denotes a type of teaching in which some students are physically present in class and others join the same class at the same time from a distance, using the internet.
“Elbow bump”, a friendly greeting in which people touch elbows, and “social distancing”, to describe the practice of keeping away from others to stop the spread of disease, have also been added.
Editors asked readers in a poll if they thought that a list of other new words should be added to the dictionary.
Many are portmanteau words, which combine the first part of one word with the second part of another, and they are as follows:
– Quaranteam: A group of people who go into quarantine together
– Lockstalgia: A feeling of nostalgia for the lockdown period of the Covid-19 pandemic
– Quaranteen: A teenager in the time of the Covid-19 lockdown
– Coronnial: Someone who was born around the time of the Covid-19 pandemic
It is deemed likely that use of these words will be fleeting, and none of them have been added to the dictionary at this time.
Cambridge Dictionary has named ‘quarantine’ as Word of the Year 2020. The word has been named the word of the year based on data that showed that it was one of the most highly searched words on the Cambridge Dictionary this year. Cambridge editors have noticed that people are using the word in a new way this year describing a “general period of time in which people are not allowed to leave their homes or travel freely so that they do not catch or spread a disease.” This new sense of quarantine has now been added to the Cambridge Dictionary.
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“Quarantine was the only word to rank in the top five for both search spikes and overall views (more than 183,000 by early November), with the largest spike in searches (28,545) seen in the week of March 18-24, when many countries around the world went into lockdown as a result of Covid-19,” as per an official release.
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