Merriam-Webster announces ‘polarisation’ as 2024 word of the year

This year's US election was so divisive, many American voters went to the polls with a feeling that the opposing candidate was an existential threat to the nation [File: David Goldman/AP Photo]

Polarisation, a word that describes the division of two sharply distinct opposites, is the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s word of the year.

“Polarisation means division, but it’s a very specific kind of division,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, before Monday’s announcement. “Polarisation means that we are tending toward the extremes rather than toward the centre.”