'Authentic' Named Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2023

The choice reflects a year marked by a 'crisis of authenticity' and an increased focus on the concept in various contexts, including AI, celebrity culture, and social media.

Merriam-Webster has announced 'authentic' as its word of the year for 2023, reflecting a year defined by a 'crisis of authenticity' and a substantial increase in lookups for the term.
The choice reflects a year where the concept of authenticity has been debated and questioned in various contexts, including AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media.
The term 'authentic' is hard to define and subject to debate, which is one of the reasons it sends many people to the dictionary.
The word of the year is chosen based on data, filtering out evergreen searches and those likely linked with games.
Other words that saw spikes in searches this year include 'rizz', 'deepfake', 'coronation', 'dystopian', 'EGOT', 'X', 'implode', 'doppelgänger', 'covenant', 'indict', 'elemental', 'kibbutz' and 'deadname'.