It seems like once we’re done Halloween, the rest of the year speeds up and before you know it we’re telling people “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year.” This is also the time of year when all those year-end stories starting popping up like the news story of the year, the newsmaker of the year, the athlete of the year, and now, the word of the year.

According to Merriam-Webster the 2024 word of the year is “authentic.” More people searched for this word on their online site than any other word. It makes sense, considering the amount of posts we’ve seen from friends and public figures reference how they’re planning to be more “authentic” and “raw” with their posts for the next while. I think we all know someone who has stated they’re “going to be their authentic self” moving forward. “Authentic” and “authenticity” has also been tossed around a lot over the past year thanks to the emergence of A.I. technology, which has called into question what is real and what is not real.

Other words that were popular in 2024, according to Merriam-Webster, were “Rizz,” “Kibbutz,” “Implode,” “Coronation,” and Dystopia. Just in case you forgot, 2022’s word of the year was “gaslighting.”