Why Merriam-Webster’s Contest For the Best Words is Exactly What We Need

As a child, I used to read the dictionary. There I said it. I was the nerdiest kid alive. Good thing I can (kinda) monetize my love of words.

Over this last week, one of my favorite word-masters, the Merriam-Webster Twitter account, helped us warm up our voting muscles and asked followers to pick superlative words in various categories . Saying this contest was the best thing on the internet feels untrue, given it fell in the same week as the magic of the DNC Georgia roll call, but as a lover of sesquipedalian and pithy words alike, it’s a nice way to break up the feed. However, I do believe knowing the true meaning and feeling behind words is vitally important these days, more so than in the past.

So far, Merriam-Webster has determined, through popular vote alone (check-marked aka verified accounts don’t get more electoral votes), that the most overrated word is “literally,” while the most underrated word is “no.” While I’m all for precision of language and therefore might agree with literally, I think it might also fit nicely in the yet-to-be-decided “word you’ve been using wrong” box. At first, I didn’t get the choice of “no” as the most underrated word until I remembered that I’m a formally gifted and talented eldest daughter and saying no to things makes me feel like a bad person. Boundaries ARE underrated.

The people chose “ nonplussed ” as the most confusing word, which is hilarious since that’s what it means (sometimes), and I wholeheartedly agree that a good winner for “personal favorite word” is “shenanigans.”

In a nod to our favorite artist’s favorite artist , “phenomenon” was voted “most satisfying word to pronounce,” but we must admit it’s not nearly as fun as “ femininominon .” However, since that word hasn’t been added to the dictionary (yet), it is disqualified.

None of us really know what “biweekly” means so it was a good choice for that category, and now it’s up to the people to vote on the rest of the grid.

In case you care, here are my personal, highly biased votes for the next chunk:

Hardest word to pronounce: asked

Word that makes the most sense: sensory (see what I did there)

Word that is nails on a chalkboard to you: misophonia (when my older kid screams it at my younger kid at the dinner table)

Word that is poetry to you: mellifluous

Hardest word to spell: alcohol (especially when you’ve had some)

Most satisfying word to write: end

Funniest word: nincompoop

Word you’ve been using wrong: literally (again)

Worst word: tushy

Best word: petrichor

There have been studies and articles written about why some words “feel” funny, gross, lovely, etc. so there is a science to it, linguistically. However, when put to the people, the interesting phenomenon is that, even without a degree in lexicology or etymology, we often “know” which words hit with a positive or negative connotation. And that knowledge is power.

Years ago, the question “Which is worse: moist or used?” began circulating, but we’ve expanded our palates (not pallets) since then. Some words have pleasant or unpleasant mouthfeels, scan well, or satisfy in other intangible ways. Context and references mean more than what the almighty dictionary says a word means.

Merriam-Webster’s fun little awards touch on an important change in our culture. Since we are often living in a written world, where, instead of getting the full coconut tree of context, we get a sound bite, which is often written down and passed around in memes and posts, what we say is often more important than how we say it.

Words like “weird” mean something different now than they did a couple months ago (I need to ask Portland and Austin how they feel about “weird” having a very different meaning than they intended with their “Keep Portland/Austin Weird” campaigns). When I was a kid, being called a “brat” was a slap in the face, but now, being “brat” is the highest compliment in the land, second only, perhaps, to “demure,” which I bet is about to be “cringe” if it isn’t already (I’ll ask some youths).

Not only do these words mean something different than originally intended, but these single words hold significant power. Tim Walz popularized calling Republicans “weird,” which helped get him picked as the vice presidential candidate. Calling people “weird” might even, as a result, significantly impact the election. A face no longer launches a thousand ships, and a rousing speech gets memeified into a few images and words, but a single word, not always the one you think makes the most sense (like criminal, traitor, or fascist, for example) can change the course of human history.

Read more at The Daily Beast.