The Literary Life

From the staff of BookSwim.com

Dictionary.com’s Most Top Words Lists

Every year Dictionary.com releases some metrics as to the most popular search, the biggest gainers, and biggest loser.  Business Week wrote a very good article with some interesting insight from last letters, but I wanted to put some of my own thoughts down.

Top Searched Words of 2009

  1. Affect
  2. Ubiquitous
  3. Irony
  4. Socialism
  5. Effect
  6. Melancholy
  7. Love – You can tell the mood when melancholy is more searched than love… :/
  8. Integrity
  9. Nostalgic
  10. Pedantic

Top Gainers of 2009

  1. Esurient – Esurient is such an esurient word for wanting to be a top gainer.
  2. Impeded
  3. Shuddering
  4. Fugacious – I bet this won’t be here long…
  5. Suffering
  6. Negative
  7. Namaste
  8. Adjuvant – Dictionary.com was very adjuvant in defining adjuvant.
  9. Callipygian
  10. Twitter

Top Decliners of 2009

  1. Bush – I’m not going to touch this with a 10 foot pole.
  2. Maverick – *pew pew*
  3. Solace
  4. Liberal
  5. Obsequious – As you wish
  6. Rhetoric
  7. Superfluous
  8. Condescending – Well, duh!
  9. Cynical – Bought its way onto the list.
  10. Ostentatious

Top Misspelled Words of 2009

  1. Perseverance – Keep trying, you’ll get it right
  2. Convenient – Apparently irony (see above) strikes here.
  3. Embarrassed – You should be if you can’t spell this.
  4. Prerogative – I’ll spell it however I want.
  5. Pretentious – If you can’t spell it, you’re not.
  6. Appalled – I’m shocked you can’t spell it!
  7. Genius –
  8. Definitely – I have definitely misspelled definitely.
  9. Inadvertently – I swear, it wasn’t on purpose.
  10. Separate – All here on one list.

What are your thoughts on these lists?

-Nick

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