“Post-truth” is the word of 2016, according to the Oxford Dictionaries*. This adjective means “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Post-truth has often been paired with politics, both in the US and UK, and saw a spike in usage beginning in May (before the Brexit vote), peaking at the time of the US Presidential election in November.
Contenders for Oxford’s word of the year include:
- Adulating, a noun: meaning behaving like a responsible adult
- Alt-right, a noun: an ideological group of extreme conservatives
- Brexiteer, a noun: a person favoring the UK’s withdrawal from the EU
- Chatbot, a noun: a computer program which simulates human conversation on the internet
- Coulrophobia, a noun, an extreme fear of clowns
- Glass cliff, a noun: a situation in which a woman or minority member gains leadership and where the risk of failure is high
- Hygge, a noun: cosiness and comfortable socializing, making a person feel well
- Latinx, a noun or adjective: a person of Latin American descent
- Woke, woker, wokest, an adjective: alert to injustice, especially racial injustice
*https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2016
comicphonics for early readers 