Every year Merriam-Webster picks a "word of the year" and I can think of a lot of words that stick out to best explain this year...HOWEVER, this is their pick! "Pandemic"as its 2020 word of the year.
Merriam-Webster's editor at large acknowledged, "That probably isn't a big shock."
When the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11, searches for the word were nearly 116,000% higher than on the same date last year.
Coronavirus and quarantine were also in the running for Merriam-Webster's word of 2020.