Following the word “gaslighting” for word of the year 2022, 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of Merriam-Webster choosing their top word of the year.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Credit: ALAMY
The word they chose was pretty funny to me since it immediately followed ‘gaslighting,’ which Merrian-Webster’s top definition says it means, “psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories.” For 2023, in a year filled with misinformation and drastic improvement in artificial intelligence, the top word of the year is ‘authentic’.
Definition of Authentic. Credit: Merrian-Webster
With access to AI like ChatGPT and Adobe Photoshop’s AI Fill tool, it’s hard to verify the authenticity of many things theses days. Ahead of the announcement of the word of the year, editor at large at Merriam-Webster, Peter Sokolowski, says that 2023 is a year for crisis in authenticity.
“Can we trust whether a student wrote this paper? Can we trust whether a politician made this statement? We don’t always trust what we see anymore,” Sokolowski said, adding that sometimes we can’t even determine if something in front of our own eyes and ears can be trusted, and that authenticity is a performance itself.
Other top contenders for the 2023 word of the year included: rizz; implode; dystopian; deepfake; and indict
Read more:
What’s Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2023? Hint: Be true to yourself
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