Though yet to reach the heights of November 2018 – likely coinciding with media coverage of President Trump’s denial of his own government’s climate report, among others – climate denial, and associated terms, has been ever-present this year. Year 2018 and which words were shortlisted? All of these words have exceeded more moderate or speculative pairings like climate variability and climate prediction, and expected connections like climate scientist, which have dominated the usage data for more than 10 years. A group called the Climate Intelligence Foundation, for example, addressed a letter to the UN Secretary-General during the Climate Action Summit in September 2019, arguing that ‘there is no climate emergency’. The planet and climate change is big news - so much so that 'climate emergency' is Oxford dictionary's Word of the Year 2019 - let's take a look at what it means. This year, we've proudly partnered with Storyathon, Australia's largest online story-writing event, to help us determine the 2020 Oxford Australian Children’s Word of the Year. All around the world in 2019, people have been talking and writing about the state of our climate, the implications of current climate science, and proposed solutions for averting ecological disaster. In announcing the choice, representatives for the dictionary said, "Our … You can change your cookie settings at any time. The term is at the heart of a legal campaign to make serious damage to the environment an atrocity crime at the International Criminal Court, putting it on an equal footing with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. This is most clearly encapsulated by the rise of climate emergency in 2019. Similar action has been taken in political circles this year, with a growing number of local and national jurisdictions officially declaring a state of climate emergency. However, as initial analysis indicates urgent action is required to meet this target, debate as what action should be taken has contributed to a 992% usage rise for the term in 2019. in 2016, and which words were runners up? Notable among searches was existential, which we’ve chosen as our Word of the Year for 2019. Why could 2020 not be summed up in one single Word of the Year? We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. In 2018, climate did not feature in the top words typically used to modify emergency, instead the top types of emergencies people wrote about were health, hospital, and family emergencies. Amid historic flooding in Venice, Italy, and catastrophic bushfires decimating Australia's koala population, Oxford has named its 2019 Word of the Year "climate emergency." Our data reveals a 153% usage increase for climate denial in 2019, reflecting debate over climate science reporting and leading political figures’ reactions to it, and the hardening of language from scepticism to denial, with people typically described as climate science deniers or climate deniers instead of climate sceptics. The largest spike in lookups came on March 19th; overall, coronavirus was looked up a staggering 162,551% more this year than in 2019. Usage of the phrase climate emergency increased steeply over the course of 2019, and by September it was more than 100 times as common as it had been the previous year. Oxford Has Chosen ‘Constitution’ As The Hindi Word Of The Year 2019. By clicking ‘continue’ or by continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Extinction has seen a 681% increase in usage in 2019 as scientific analyses report on the breakdown of our planet’s biodiversity attributed to human activity. It’s official — the 2019 word of the year is “climate emergency,” according to Oxford Dictionaries. The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or expression shown through usage evidence to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance. Oxford Dictionaries, the maker of the Oxford English Dictionary, the definitive record of the English language, announced yesterday that its 2019 word of the year is “climate emergency.”The term is defined as “a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it.” The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or expression shown through usage evidence to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance. The Oxford Word of the Year 2019 is climate emergency.” This data is significant because it indicates a growing shift in people’s language choice in 2019, a conscious intensification that challenges accepted language use to reframe discussion of ‘the defining issue of our time’ with a new gravity and greater immediacy. November 21, 2019. (Isn't that two words?) This website uses cookies that provide targeted advertising and which track your use of this website. Oxford announces climate emergency as its Word of the Year for 2019. "It reflects it was a real preoccupation of the English-speaking world in 2019." Amidst heightened public attention to the climate emergency and calls for action, the word ecocide has had a 680% increase in frequency of use over 2019. Amid historic flooding in Venice, Italy, and catastrophic bushfires decimating Australia's koala population, Oxford has named its 2019 Word of the Year "climate emergency." 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