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GLOBAL LANGUAGE MONITOR (GLM) Names the Numerals the Top Words of the Year 2021 for Global English (#WOTY 2021)

GLM has been defining the Top Words of the 21st Century for Global English Since the Year 2000.

GLM is the only WOTY for Worldwide English

Next Big Numbers for 2022:

US:  1,000,000 Covid Deaths

World:  5,500,000 Covid Deaths

 Media Contact:  Paul JJ Payack    pjjp@post.harvard.edu, +1 (737) 215-7750

Austin, TEXAS, December 30 - January 4. The Global Language Monitor has named “the Numerals” the Top Words of the Year for 2021 for Global English.

The Covid-19 Pandemic has dominated the news in 2021 as it had in 2020.  However, It’s the numbers that accompany every story, in any language, at any time, in any medium that lift the numerals to the lofty position of Word of the Year (#WOTY).

There are, literally, hundreds of billions of permutations of the basic ten numerals   And no mention of Covid-19 is complete without a full run-down of the relevant stats.  For example, this week the media reported that “record number of U.S. COVID-19 infections, with 441,278 new cases, surpassing the previous high of about 290,000 cases reported earlier in Dec., nearly surpassing the previous daily record of 294,015 set before vaccines were widely available last January”.

The seven-day moving average is now more than 240,000 cases a day.

The Heart emoji was the Top Word of 2014 the first time a symbol took the honor, though the hashtag # also made the 2014 list.

The Top Words of the Year 2021 for Global English follow.

  1. The Numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0) – Every time Covid (or one of its variants) is mentioned, it is surrounded by three to five numbers. Covid-19 currently has about 4 billion citations on Google, which are accompanied by tens of billions of supporting numbers.
  2. Covid-19 – Word of the Year in 2020, could be word of the year in 2022. perhaps for the decade? Perhaps the 21st century?
  3. Wokeness – The state of being awakened to the social distresses found amongst us. Though this appears to occur for every generation it is used by politicians as a never-before-witnessed phenomenon.  Favored by Progressives.
  4. Variant – The longer the coronavirus persists, the more variations will emerge. Remember the great plague in London in 1666?  It was merely a replay of the bubonic plague of the mid-1300s. And the Hong Kong Flu?  A replay of the Spanish Flu of the World War 1 era.
  5. The Pronouns – People have been attempting to re-define their language for their own political purposes, at least since the French Revolution. The Marxists expanded the practice, right comrade?  The practice increased during the Sexual Revolution (Ms., etc.) and continues to grow during the recent ‘racial reckoning.  And today, the Woke among us are attempting to use personal “woke pronouns” to help define their sexual orientation (and yours).

Here is a list of gender-neutral pronouns:

He/She — Zie, Sie, Ey, Ve, Tey, E

Him/Her — Zim, Sie, Em, Ver, Ter, Em

His/Her — Zir, Hir, Eir, Vis, Tem, Eir

His/Hers — Zis, Hirs, Eirs, Vers, Ters, Eirs

Himself/Herself — Zieself, Hirself, Eirself, Verself, Terself, Emself

  1. “Flatten the Curve.” – Don’t hear too many discussing ‘Flattening the Curve” nowadays.
  2. Supply Chain – You knew the global economy was linked in ways never before imagined. Now you KNOW it.
  3. Cancel Culture – A movement to negate whatever political speech you find inconvenient. Particularly strong on college campuses.
  4. Latinx – Gender-neutral version for people of Hispanic heritage, formerly Latino ad Latina.   I am planning to refer to myself henceforward as HUMANX.
  5. D Variant – Another Covid-19 variant
  6. Omicrom – Yet another Covid variant. This can go on for decades (see above).
  7. Coronavirus – Human coronavirus was first identified in the mid-1960s. Unfortunately, Covid-19 will be far from the last encounter.
  8. Joe Biden – 46th and current President of the United States. Biden has about one half the number of citations as his predecessor.
  9. Donald Trump – 45th president of the United States. Trump has twice as many current citations as his successor, Joe Biden.
  10. Tokyo Olympics – The 2021, nee 2020 Olympics were a modest disappointment, nevertheless a major achievement to have taken place in the midst of a raging worldwide pandemic
  11. Lockdown – At the end of the various national lockdowns; many felt like they had been locked up.
  12. WHO – The World Health Organization, whose charter requires it to help attain “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health”.
  13. Global Warming – ‘Climate Change’ and/or ‘Global Warming’ have ranked near the top of this list for the entire century, thus far.
  14. January 6 Event at the U.S. Capitol Building, according to Global Citations 1) Attack, 2) Uprising, 3} Insurrection.
  15. Vaccine – Operation Warp Speed has begot a number of vaccines with others, no doubt, to follow.
  16. Afghanistan – The fall and unseemly retreat from Afghanistan cast a pall over an already somber year.

Global Language Monitor began recording the Top Words of the Year in 2000 to document the history of the 21st Century through the English language, the world’s first truly global language. The words are culled throughout the English-speaking world, which as of January 2021 ranks more than 3.18 billion speakers. Global Language Monitor employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global internet and social media analysis.

NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the internet, blogosphere, and the top 300,000 print and electronic global media as well as new social media sources as they emerge.

In addition, the Global Language Monitor has also tracked the Top Words, Phrases and Names of the 21st Century.

More information about these and the company can be found at https://languagemonitor.com/about/about-2/About Global Language Monitor

Based in Austin, Texas, the Global Language Monitor collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language. The company is known for its Word of the Year, political analysis, college and university rankings, high-tech buzzwords, and media analytics. For more information, visit Languagemonitor.com.

Media Contact::  Paul JJ Payack

President & Chief Word Analyst
The Global Language Monitor

Austin, Texas 78717
pjjp@post.harvard.edu Private Email