Marsupial And Other Trending Words On Dictionary.com

marsupial

This week, the word with the most increases in searches was  . . . marsupial. It went up in searches by 441%. And, it’s all due to the little crest-tailed mulgara found in New South Wales (Australia). This little critter was thought to be extinct for over 100 years! But, (according to Mashable) it “was found by researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) at Sturt National Park near Tibooburra who were working on a project to restore and promote desert ecosystems.” We love an uplifting trend!

annul

Annul increased in searches by 235% this week due to Honduras’s presidential runner-up. He wants to annul the results from their recent presidential election and was hoping the US would back him on it (he even travelled to Washington to plead his case). He didn’t receive any support from the Trump administration though.

tumble

Tumble made headlines this week (and increased by 50% in searches consequently) as it described Bitcoin’s falling value. Apparently, the cryptocurrency is extremely volatile, starting the year at a value of $800 and getting as high as $19,783 (on December 17th). This week the value took a tumble, but still remains up over 1000% for the year.

lucky

The searches for lucky increased by 72% this week. It’s a little unclear why, but here are some theories:

1. The New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle breakdown started off with the sentence: “Everyone should be so lucky as to have a next-level gift giver in their lives, the kind of person who takes genuine pleasure in thinking months ahead and obsessing over every detail about each present for each person in your family or social circle.”
2. KTLA reported that firefighters rescued and resuscitated a dog named Lucky from a burning home in Pasadena, CA.
3.  Mariah Carey is coming back to Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve this year after her musical mishap last year. She told Entertainment Weekly that she was lucky to have gotten to work with Dick Clark himself.
4. The Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots are both over $300 million. You would have to be pretty lucky to win one of those pots.
5. General Mills created a new cereal called: Lucky Charms Frosted Flakes . . .

cudgel

Two news stories used cudgel in their headlines this week, which caused it to spike in searches by 160%.

• The New York Times reported that “‘Fake News,’ Trump’s Obsession, Is Now a Cudgel for Strongmen“.
• PBS reported that “Dems aim to turn tax plan into cudgel in 2018 midterms“.

incandescent

Guess what? Incandescent (up in searches by 17%) lightbulbs are getting the lights turned out on their production. California will be the first state to stop selling them as an effort to phase out bulbs that use more energy.

vastly

It seems searches for vastly (increased by 123%) were centered around football, as sportscasters reported that teams were vastly under achieving (Baltimore Ravens), vastly improved (Atlanta Falcons), and on vastly different pedestals (Oakland Raiders).

However, The Washington Post also reported that the democrats are building a case against the tax bill, and the article’s ending line is this: “The point is that for almost every middle class person the benefits of free college, affordable health care and improved infrastructure will vastly exceed any possible tax increase they see.”

cromulent

Cromulent was up 20%, and we here at Dictionary.com would like to take credit for this one! City-journal.org reported on our Word of the Year choice, saying “Dictionary.com went with “complicit,” which initially appears to be a perfectly cromulent and un-weaponized word.”

They later go on to say that every dictionary’s Word of the Year choice was highly politicized, but that is the times we live in.

ditto

Ditto increased in searches by 144%. Well, a house in Colorado is to thank for this. They apparently couldn’t outdo their neighbor’s Christmas lights and decorations, so they put up lights that said “Ditto” instead. Clever, clever.