Oxford Dictionary picks 'Vax' as word of the year

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has declared ‘Vax’ as the word of the year for 2021.

In a statement, OED said that due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, words related to vaccines spiked in frequency in 2021. In September usage of the word, “vax” was up more than 72 times from its level last year.

 “Vax is our 2021 Word of the Year. When our lexicographers began digging into our English language corpus data it quickly became apparent that vax was a particularly striking term. A relatively rare word in our corpus until this year, by September it was over 72 times more frequent than at the same time last year”.

“It has generated numerous derivatives that we are now seeing in a wide range of informal contexts, from vax sites and vax cards to getting vaxxed and being fully vaxxed, no word better captures the atmosphere of the past year than vax,” the statement added.