Merriam-Webster Declares ‘They’ Its 2019 Word of the Year

Merriam-Webster has named the pronoun “they” its 2019 word of the year.

The word and its emergence as a nonbinary alternative to “he” and “she” experienced a 313 percent increase in look-ups on Merriam-Webster.com.

Editor at large Peter Sokolowski says he was surprised by the data but the word has been the subject of a lot of talk this year.

Look-ups for “they" spiked in January with the rise of model Oslo Grace on top fashion runways.

In September, the dictionary's site experienced another big increase in look-ups for “they” when pop star Sam Smith wrote on social media that their preferred pronouns were “they” and “them."