Merriam-Webster has chosen justice as the 2018 word of the year.
The publishing company, mostly known for its dictionaries, determines the world of the year based on its online dictionary lookup data.
For a number of reasons and meanings, ‘justice’ was on the minds of many in 2018.
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) December 17, 2018
‘Justice’ is our 2018 #WordOfTheYear.https://t.co/kyB9swUkQp
"The word must show both high volume of traffic, and and show significant year over year increase in lookups at merriam-webster.com," Editor-At-Large Peter Sokolowski said.
Merriam-Webster says searches for the word justice increased by 74 percent this year when comparing searches in 2017. Searches for the word spiked most when specific news events relating to the word occurred.
Merriam-Webster defines Justice as: the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments.