Two major dictionary publishers have chosen pandemic as the 2020 word of the year. Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com both declared their choices on Monday. Merriam-Webster said its decision was based on the “extremely high numbers” of people who had looked up pandemic in its online dictionary in 2020. The word showed a major year-over-year increase in internet traffic, the company said. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. The Merriam-Webster Learners’ Dictionary defines pandemic as an occurrence in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people over a wide area or throughout the world. Searches for pandemic on the Merriam-Webster website rose more than 115,000 percent on March 11 compared to a year earlier.
What is a pandemic?
a large hospital that cares for critically ill patients
a disease that spreads very quickly over a wide area or throughout the world
a large black and white bear that lives in Asia
a vaccine that is used to stop the spread of an infectious disease
When did the World Health Organization declare COVID-19 a pandemic?
April 6
February 15
January 1
March 11
The 2020 word of the year is pandemic.
vaccine
mask
pandemic
infection