Brexit, vegan and unicorn are popular words in short story contest

Brxit Unicorn is one of the entries of 500 Words

A Unicorn called Brexit and The Cat Who Solved Brexit are some of the stories entered into a BBC short story competition as 'Brexit' is declared Children's Word Of The Year.

Every year, Oxford University Press analyses thousands of entries submitted by children, aged five to 13 years old, to BBC Radio 2's 500 Words contest.

And it seems this year Brexit is having a surprising influence on the creativity of young writers, leading the OUP researchers to name it the word of the year.

It appeared 418 times, up from 89 times in 2018.

Story titles featuring it include The Cat Who Solved Brexit, Aliens In Brexit and A Unicorn Called Brexit.

This year also found an increase in the use of words like veggie and vegan, including a story about a vegan wolf and a vegan crocodile who just don't want to eat meat anymore. But chocolate is still the most popular food with 10,830 mentions.

Cristiano Ronaldo was the top mentioned real person in the stories

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was the top mentioned real person, just trumping Donald Trump who came second.

Last year's word of the year' according to OUP experts was plastic, and it seems it's just as popular this year.

Sloths are emerging as a favourite animal. The slow-moving animals appeared a record 1,100 times in stories this year. But unicorns are still the most popular mythical animals with 15,000 mentions!

There were 112,986 entries from children aged five to 13 to BBC Radio 2's 500 words competition.

The 500 Words Live Final is on Friday 14 June 2019 from Windsor Castle with special guest, Honorary Judge, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall and Newsround is going to be meeting the winners!