My Word of the Year 2024

I'm not sure if it's part of my growing process—or rather, my aging process—but I started reflecting on the passing year about 20 years ago. Though I usually reflected alone, I appreciated the Word of the Year assessments. These assessments, conducted by authoritative institutions, highlight the most important words or expressions representing each year, as demonstrated concisely in this video. So, in a way, I wasn’t alone as I’ve followed the Word of the Year announcements made annually around this time.

Incidentally, in my role as a Toastmaster I was asked to host our regular meeting held yesterday, so I had to choose a theme for the meeting to center around. Thus, I chose my favorite theme of the season: My Word of the Year 2024, and it made my annual routine this year all different because I reflected it alongside my fellow Toastmasters and friends.

As part of my preparation for my task as the TME (Toastmaster of the Evening,  the meeting host), I checked out the status of the assessment conducted by institutions that own the most referenced English dictionaries, Collins, Cambridge and Oxford. Among the three, Collins Dictionary already announced its 2024 Word of the Year: brat, a noun, meaning  "someone characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.” The word was popularized by the album by Charli XCX, a British pop music star.

In addition, Cambridge Dictionary announced just hours ago its 2024 Word of the Year: manifest, a verb, meaning  "using methods such as visualization and affirmation to help you imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen,” The word was popularized by Dua Lipa, an English and Albanian pop music star.

As for Oxford Dictionary, six words have been shortlisted for a public vote to decide which one will be the winner of Oxford Word of the Year 2024. The result will be out on 12/02, and here are the six finalists: 

1. brain rot

2. demure

3. dynamic pricing

4. lore

5. romantasy

6. Slop

At our meeting last night, I updated my fellow Toastmasters about the Word of the Year selections by Collins Dictionary and Cambridge Dictionary, and shared my personal Word of the Year 2024: fluid, an adjective, is the word I chose to represent the "outside world in my view", meaning "situations and ideas that are not fixed and likely to change repeatedly and unexpectedly". For my personal life, I chose the word restart. Though I already retired more than two and a half years ago, I have experienced many new things in this passing year.

Then, as the meeting proceeded according to the agenda, all my fellow Toastmasters and our guest had the opportunity to share their Word of the Year 2024 and explain why they chose it, either directly or through me as the TME. This is the best part of our meeting, in my view, with that we can share our thoughts, listen to our fellows' perspectives, so we understand and learn from one another. Here's the list of My Words of the Year 2024 shared by all participants: pioneer, adapt, critical, fuss, explore, change, AI, abundance, fake, strong, grinding and seeding, transformation, busy, illusive.

At the end of the meeting, I wrapped it up with this famous quote: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present." With the year 2025 still 6 weeks away, let's all make the most out of our "present", and earn ourselves a rewarding close of the year 2024!

But the story didn't end there. After the meeting Helen, my fellow Toastmaster, shared that the UK pop queen Dua Lipa was on her world tour, and was performing in Taiwan at this moment.  More than 20,000 fans cheered her at a stadium in Taoyuan, just a 30-minute drive from where we had our regular meeting on that same rainy evening, sharing her "manifesting" story that went viral and became Cambridge Dictionary's Word of the Year 2024  just hours ago. What a coincidence!

While I felt "rejuvenated" through learning words of the year, brat and manifest, selected due to the influence from young pop culture artists, I feel blessed to have spent an otherwise dull and rainy night with a room of like-minded friends, old and new. It certainly made my year-end routine unusually rewarding this time.