As the all-important question of truth and facts continues to dominate current affairs, it may come as no surprise to learn that Merriam-Webster\u2019s word of the year is \u201cauthentic.\u201d <\/p>\n
The online dictionary says there has been a high volume of searches for the word\u2019s definition for several years, but 2023 saw a \u201csubstantial increase,\u201d thanks to \u201cstories and conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media.\u201d <\/p>\n
The reason so many look it up is because \u201cauthentic\u201d has several meanings, according to the announcement on the dictionary\u2019s website, including \u201cnot false or imitation\u201d and \u201ctrue to one\u2019s own personality, spirit, or character.\u201d <\/p>\n
A synonym of real and actual, authentic is \u201cclearly a desirable quality,\u201d according to Merriam-Webster, and is often linked with expressions of identity, such as cuisine. <\/p>\n
The dictionary said it has also been a term favored by celebrities like singers Lainey Wilson, Sam Smith and Taylor Swift, who have all made headlines this year with statements about seeking their \u201cauthentic voice\u201d and \u201cauthentic self.\u201d <\/p>\n
Another fan is Elon Musk, who has previously said that people should be more \u201cauthentic\u201d on social media. However, that became more of an issue earlier this year when Musk, as the new boss of Twitter, now X, got rid of the trademark blue check sign of authenticity \u2013 now only available at a price. <\/p>\n
The rise of artificial intelligence has blurred the lines between what is real and what is not, leaving celebrities, brands and social media influencers \u2013 among others \u2013 keen to prove their authenticity. <\/p>\n
One of the other words to stand out in searches this year, according to the dictionary, was the closely related \u201cdeepfake.\u201d <\/p>\n
This is defined by Merriam-Webster as \u201can image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said.\u201d <\/p>\n
There was a particular spike in searches for the term in April and early May, the dictionary said, when Musk\u2019s lawyers argued that he shouldn\u2019t have to give legal testimony about public statements he made as some of these may have been deepfakes. The argument was rejected. One of the most notable news stories of the year about deepfake images was of those appearing to show former President Donald Trump being detained by police in a dramatic fashion back in March. <\/p>\n
In 2022, Merriam-Webster chose \u201cgaslighting\u201d as its word of the year, saying it had become a ubiquitous term in the \u201cage of misinformation.\u201d <\/p>\n
Other words that led much traffic to the online dictionary in 2023 included coronation, dystopian, indict and doppelg\u00e4nger. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile \u201crizz\u201d went straight to the \u201ctop of lookups\u201d in September, when the example of internet-driven slang was added to the dictionary. <\/p>\n
For the uninitiated, Merriam-Webster explained: \u201cAs a noun, rizz means \u2018romantic appeal or charm\u2019 (as in \u2018a bro who has rizz\u2019); as a verb (typically used with up, as in \u2018rizz up that cutie\u2019) it means \u2018to charm or seduce.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n
As the all-important question of truth and facts continues to dominate current affairs, it may come as no surprise to learn that Merriam-Webster\u2019s word of the year is \u201cauthentic.\u201d The online dictionary says there has been a high volume of searches for the word\u2019s definition for several years, but 2023 saw a \u201csubstantial increase,\u201d thanks <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}