'Demure' named 2024 word of the year by Dictionary.com

The word “demure” has emerged as Dictionary.com's 2024 Word of the Year.

On its website, the online dictionary highlighted the significance of its annual selection saying that the chosen word “serves as a linguistic time capsule” that reflects social trends and global events that defined the year.

“The Word of the Year isn’t just about popular usage; it reveals the stories we tell about ourselves and how we’ve changed over the year. And for these reasons, Dictionary.com’s 2024 Word of the Year is demure,” it said.

“To select the 2024 Word of the Year, our lexicographers analyzed a large amount of data including newsworthy headlines, trends on social media, search engine results, and more to identify words that made an impact on our conversations, online and in the real world,” it added.

According to Dictionary.com, the word demure experienced a “meteoric rise” in usage in 2024 between January and the end of August where it saw a nearly 1,200% increase in usage in digital web media alone.

The dictionary attributed this rise to TikTok user Jool Lebron who popularized the phrase “very demure, very mindful” in a series of videos posted in the platform in early August.

“Though the term demure has traditionally been used to describe those who are reserved, quiet, or modest, a new usage has spread through social media — one used to describe refined and sophisticated appearance or behavior in various contexts, such as at work or on a plane,” it said.

“This increased focus on public appearance and behavior comes at a time when employees are increasingly returning to offices after hybrid remote work following the pandemic.”

It further noted that the rise and spread of the word on social media has resulted in a similar increase in search interest on Google which peaked at the week of August 18.

“Between August 2023 and July 2024, there was no significant trend in the usage of the word demure. By the week of August 18, 2024, however, there was almost 14 times more interest in the term, highlighting the term’s almost overnight explosion in popularity,”  it said, adding that the word was searched 200 times on the online dictionary during its peak.

Previously, Collin’s Dictionary announced that its 2024 Word of the Year is “brat.”

@commentforum @Jools Lebron #demureoriginal #verydemure #verymindful #demure ? original sound - commentson

—Jade Veroique Yap/JCB, GMA Integrated News