Baseball, power and war - 2022's key words

Words of the year

The Earth pictured behind a selection of 'Words of the Year' from across the world

Was 2022 defined by conflict, power cuts ... or a viral word game? That's what language experts around the world have been trying to decide as they nominate their words of the year.

A baseball photographed through a red filter with the word "homer" superimposed on it.

Meaning: "A point scored in baseball when you hit the ball, usually out of the playing field, and are able to run around all the bases at one time to the starting base."

Nominated by: The Cambridge Dictionary

Why: A homer is both the sound of success in baseball and thousands of angry Wordle fans throwing their phone at the wall. The Cambridge Dictionary chose the word after they saw a huge spike in search traffic outside North America from players of the viral game wondering what it meant

A solider rides atop a tank shot through a blue filter with a Japanese kanji character imposed across the centre

Meaning: War. The Japanese character is pronounced differently - as "sen" or "ikusa" - depending on the word and context in which it is used

Nominated by: Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, public poll

Why? One of the biggest news events this year was the conflict in Ukraine, but the choice also reflects tensions with North Korea as well as sporting competitions like the World Cup and Winter Olympics

Two identical soldiers photographed from the waist down, holding their rifles by their sides - shot through a red filter with the word Bonha over the top

Meaning: War (Russia)

Nominated by: An independent panel, headed by a Russian professor based in the US

Why? The panel's choice has special significance as the Russian government still does not call its war a war, calling it instead a "special military operation"

A row of power lines recedes into the distance creating an ever-smaller pattern, with a blue filter over the top and the words "load shedding" in the centre

Meaning: When demand for electricity exceeds supply, an operator implements load shedding. A power cut, in other words

Nominated by: The Pan South African Language Board

Why: South Africa's choice reflects a year which saw its biggest ever power crisis. Rolling blackouts were common, as the country's ageing power network and mainly coal-fuelled power stations struggled to keep up with demand

A chocolate bar, half peeled from its golden foil packaging, is seen through a red photographic fitler with the word "Krimflasjon" over the top

Meaning: Shrinkflation, when items get smaller even as price stays the same

Nominated by: The Norwegian Language Council

Why? Inflation has stretched consumers around the world, with high energy and food prices. Shrinkflation is one way retailers have responded

A close-up of a woman looking though the shattered glass of an old-style lantern, seen trhough a blue filter and with the word "gaslighting" over it

Meaning: The act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for a personal advantage. Its origins come from a 30s play where a man tries to trick his wife into believing she is insane

Nominated by: Merriam-Webster

Why? The US dictionary maker says gaslighting is a "word for our time", pointing to how the decades-old term sits with more modern forms of deception, such as fake news or deepfakery

Three identical hourglass timers are seen with sand running through them, with a red filter and the word Zeitenwende over the top

Meaning: A turning point in history. It can be translated several ways, but roughly means the end of an era and the beginning of a new one

Nominated by: The Society for the German Language

Why? Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz used the term following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In the aftermath, Germany transformed its defence, energy and economic policies

A young woman poses for the camera through a blue filter, with the word "woman" imposed across the image

Meaning: "An adult female person"

Nominated by: Dictionary.com

Why: The term is a flashpoint in the polarised debate over gender and identity. Dictionary.com saw a spike in traffic when Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked for a definition during her confirmation for the US Supreme Court. It was, the site says, "a rare case of not just a word in the spotlight, but a definition”