'Lockdown' named word of the year by Collins Dictionary

Lockdown, the noun that has come to define so many lives across the world in 2020, has been named word of the year by Collins Dictionary.

Lockdown is defined by Collins as "the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction, and access to public spaces," and its usage has boomed over the last year. The 4.5bn-word Collins Corpus, which contains written material from websites, books and newspapers, as well as spoken material from radio, television and conversations, registered a 6,000% increase in its usage. In 2019, there were 4,000 recorded instances of lockdown being used. In 2020, this had soared to more than a quarter of a million.

"Language is a reflection of the world around us and 2020 has been dominated by the global pandemic," says Collins language content consultant Helen Newstead. "We have chosen lockdown as our word of the year because it encapsulates the shared experience of billions of people who have had to restrict their daily lives in order to contain the virus. Lockdown has affected the way we work, study, shop, and socialize."

Other pandemic-related words on the dictionary's list of top 10 words include "coronavirus", "social distancing", "self-isolate", "furlough" and "keyworker". According to Collins, "keyworker" saw a 60-fold increase in usage over the last year, which reflects "the importance attributed this year to professions considered to be essential to society".

The other words on this year's top 10 list are: "Megxit", defined as "the withdrawal of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from royal duties, announced in January 2020"; "mukbang", originated from Korean words and referring to a video or webcast in which the host eats a large quantity of food for the entertainment of viewers; "TikToker", meaning a person who regularly shares or appears in videos on TikTok.

The abbreviation BLM, for Black Lives Matter, also made the shortlist. Defined by Collins as "a movement that campaigns against racially motivated violence and oppression", it registered a 581% increase in usage.

Previous words of the year for Collins include "climate strike" in 2019, "single-use" in 2018, "fake news" in 2017, and "Brexit" in 2016.