Reflecting election distortions in the United States and the United Kingdom, the Oxford English Dictionary named "post-truth" as its 2016 word of the year. It defined the term as "relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."
The theme was mirrored in Merriam-Webster's selection of "surreal" — defined as "marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream" — as its 2016 word of the year.
Three specific spikes in online searches for "surreal" were tied to internationally intensive stories: The terrorist attacks in Brussels last March; an attempted coup in Turkey last July, and the U.S. campaign that climaxed with November's election.
Another earthshaking geopolitical event — the U.K. vote to leave the European Union — led Collins Dictionary linguists to list "Brexit" as their 2016 word of the year.
Justifying their votes to leave their continental cousins, many Brits cited economics. But "xenophobia" — Dictionary.com's 2016 word of the year — undoubtedly was a factor, too.
In fact, in the day after the Brexit upset, Dictionary.com notched a 938 percent surge in searches of "xenophobia." The second most significant rise was after former President Barack Obama's speech expressing concern over the use of the term populism to describe then-candidate Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric. In fact, Obama said, it was more an example of "nativism or xenophobia."
In explaining their choice, Dictionary.com wrote that, "This year, some of the most prominent news stories have centered around fear of the 'other.' "
President Trump seemed to seize upon — and be seized by — this fear when he again claimed that between three to five million unauthorized immigrants voted, robbing him of a popular vote victory to match his Electoral College win.