Merriam-Webster names socialism and capitalism as top words of 2012

Jim Kinney | By Jim Kinney | The Republican
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on December 05, 2012 at 11:19 AM, updated December 05, 2012 at 11:20 AM
07.16.2012 | SPRINGFIELD -- Archival photographs of co-founders George and Charles Merriam, printers of the original Webster Dictionary.

SPRINGFIELD -- Socialism and capitalism did the so-called dismal science of economics proud in 2012, earning word of the year honors from Springfield dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster Inc.

The honor is based on the number of user searches at

The word "socialism" saw its largest spikes in interest during coverage of the federal health care debate, but also saw peaks in the days following both conventions and each of the presidential debates, according to the company.

Capitalism was looked up less often than socialism, a tidbit sure to spark political arguments of its own.

“We saw a huge spike for socialism on Election Day itself, but interest in both words was very high all year,” Peter Sokolowski, editor at large at Merriam-Webster said in a news release. “Lookups of one word often led to lookups of the other.”

The word socialism refers to governmental ownership and administration of the production and distribution of goods. Capitalism refers to private or corporate ownership of the tools used to make and transport products whose prices are set by competition on the free market, according to the company.

The presidential race spawned other words- and phrases-of-the-moment, such as Mitt Romney's "binders full of women."

It seems like people were arguing a lot in 2012, with the French word touche also getting a lot searches from people looking for ways to concede a clever point made by their debate opponents.

Previous words of the year include "pragmatic".

The company's complete list of Words of the Year for 2012 is:

  1. socialism and capitalism

  2. touché

  3. bigot

  4. marriage

  5. democracy

  6. professionalism

  7. globalization

  8. malarkey

  9. schadenfreude

  10. meme