"Pandemic" is officially the word of the year for 2020, Merriam-Webster announced on Monday.
The Associated Press reports that Merriam-Webster's editor at large feels "that probably isn’t a big shock." Uh, duh!
Merriam-Webster defines pandemic as "an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affects a significant proportion of the population."
Merriam-Webster's editor at large adds that searches for the "pandemic" were 115,806 percent higher than on the same date last year.
The World Health Organization on March 11 declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
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