The Cambridge Dictionary has revealed its word of the year for 2022 as “homer”, with editors crediting disgruntled Wordle players whose winning streak was ended by the unfamiliar American English term.
Homer, an informal American English word for a home run in baseball, was searched for nearly 75,000 times during the first week of May when it was an answer in the online five-letter word puzzle. It became the dictionary’s highest-spiking word of the year, and editors said five-letter Wordle answers dominated searches this year as the game became a global phenomenon.
The vast majority of searches for homer (95%) were from outside North America as frustrated Wordle players turned to the Cambridge Dictionary to learn what it meant. Speakers of British English used words like “outraged” and “furious” to complain on social media about the choice of “homer” as the Wordle answer for May 5.
