(A group of students from Harvard and Yale gave us an example Saturday of Oxford’s 2019 word of the year.)

Oxford Dictionary just announced its “word of the year” for 2019.  They’re the second ones to do that, after Collins Dictionary a few weeks ago.  And so far . . . we’re two-for-two on words relating to climate change.

Collins went with “climate strike” as their word . . . and now Oxford has gone with “climate emergency” as their word of the year.

Their definition is, quote, “a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it.”

They picked that term because they say it captures the, quote, “ethos, mood, or preoccupations” of the year . . . plus its usage went up 10,796% from 2018.

And ALL of their potential words of the year were related to climate change.  The runners up are:  Climate crisis . . . climate action . . . extinction . . . and eco-anxiety.