How They Pick the Word of the Year

By Elsa Partan

Published December 18, 2017 at 10:36 AM EST

Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is feminism. How did they come up with that? In part, it’s based on how often people searched for the definition on the Merriam Webster website. That hasn’t always been the case. We talk with Peter Sokolowski, Merriam Webster’s editor at large.

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Elsa Partan

Elsa Partan is a producer and newscaster with CAI. She first came to the station in 2002 as an intern and fell in love with radio. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. From 2006 to 2009, she covered the state of Wyoming for the NPR member station Wyoming Public Media in Laramie. She was a newspaper reporter at The Mashpee Enterprise from 2010 to 2013. She lives in Falmouth with her husband and two daughters.

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