A common but very busy little word "they" has an accolade all its own. The language mavens at Merriam-Webster have declared the personal pronoun their word of the year based on a 313% increase in look-ups on the company's search site this year compared with 2018. "I have to say it's surprising to me," said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large.

A common but very busy little word "they" has an accolade all its own. The language mavens at Merriam-Webster have declared the personal pronoun their word of the year based on a 313% increase in look-ups on the company's search site this year compared with 2018. "I have to say it's surprising to me," said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large.