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Words of the Year and Google Translate

Interesting words and their reflection of society…..

 

Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year

Announced 25 January. The Committee’s Choice for 2016 Word of the Year is fake news. Honourable mentions go to enby and halal snack pack.

People’s Choice: Halal snack pack.

Fake news – disinformation and hoaxes published on websites for political purposes or to drive web traffic, with the incorrect information being passed along by social media.

Halal snack pack – hot chips, grated cheese, halal kebab meat, garlic sauce, bbq sauce and chilli sauce.

Enby – a person who identifies as neither male nor female.

Shortlist category winners: youlk; racebending; standing desk; shoefiti; fatberg; greige; rumbler alarm; patient navigator; filter bubble; alt-right; enby; bubble soccer; plyscraper.

Winners and finalists with definitions: https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/resources/view/word/of/the/year/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-25/fake-news-named-2016-word-of-the-year/8211056

 

Other Words of the Year 2016

 

Oxford Dictionaries (UK and US)

Post-truth  – relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. Other popular words: alt-right, glass cliff, hygge (Danish cosiness), chatbot (computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users), adulting (behaving like a responsible adult).

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2016

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/15/post-truth-named-word-of-the-year-by-oxford-dictionaries

 

Collins Dictionary

Brexit – withdrawal of the UK from the EU. Other popular words: hygge, mic drop, Trumpism, throw shade, sharenting (sharing your kids’ photos on social media), snowflake generation, dude food, Uberization, JOMO (joy of missing out).

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/word-lovers-blog/new/top-10-collins-words-of-the-year-2016,323,HCB.html

 

American Dialect Society

Dumpster fire – an exceedingly disastrous or chaotic situation. Other popular words: normalize, post-truth, woke (socially aware). Emoji of the Year: fire (exciting). Digital Word of the Year: @ (replying on Twitter).

http://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2016-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf

 

Merriam-Webster

Surreal – marked by the intense irrationality of a dream. Other popular words: icon, deplorable, feckless, revenant.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/woty2016-top-looked-up-words-surreal

 

Global Language Monitor

Tracks global trends through Big Data analysis of Global English, with over 1.83 billion speakers. Number of words in the English language (1 Jan 2016 estimate): 1 035 877. Most understood word of the English language – OK. Top 40 words for the first 15 years of the 21st century and what they portend: 1. Web/internet 2. China 3. Selfie 4. 404 (internet failure) 5. 9/11

http://www.languagemonitor.com/trending-words/top-words-for-the-first-15-years-of-the-21st-century-the-trends-they-portend/

 

Google Translate

Google Translate now uses Neural Machine Translation Artificial Intelligence for translation tasks. This works on entire sentences at once, giving more context to work out the best translation. It is used for 8 of the most common language pairs and results in more natural translations with better syntax. Now 10 years old, Google Translate supports 103 languages and translates over 140 billion words every day. It also continues to rely on Translate Community, where speakers contribute and review translations.

https://translate.google.com.au/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2114748-google-translate-ai-invents-its-own-language-to-translate-with/

https://blog.google/products/translate/found-translation-more-accurate-fluent-sentences-google-translate/

 

Vocabulary.com

Free fun way to learn over 13 000 words effectively – suitable for Grade 5 onwards. A games approach personalises learning experiences, asking questions to increase vocabulary. The online dictionary used is very user-friendly and easy to understand. Vocabulary lists are easily created and can be shared. Educator Edition also available. Available on desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

https://www.vocabulary.com/

https://www.vocabulary.com/howitworks/