The coronavirus pandemic has officially defined 2020.
UK-based Collins Dictionary has announced “lockdown” as its word of the year, with other pandemic related words close behind.
Defined as “the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction, and access to public spaces,” the noun was one of six words in the dictionary’s top-ten of 2020 that related to the deadly bug.
Coronavirus was of course on the list, registering a staggering 35,000-fold increase in use over the previous year.
Other related words include: social distancing, self-isolation, key workers and furlough.
Last year, Collins, which tracks a 4.5 billion word corpus, chose “climate strike” as the word of year.