Merriam-Webster selects 'feminism' as its 2017 word of the year

Following a year that began with the Women's March on Washington and closed with the #MeToo movement that prompted thousands of women to share their stories of sexual assault and harassment about the world's most powerful men, Merriam-Webster finally announces its word of the year for 2017: feminism.

“No one word can ever encapsulate all the news, events, or stories of a given year,” Merriam-Webster's editor at large, Peter Sokolowski, said in a statement.

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“But when we look back at the past twelve months and combine an analysis of words that have been looked up much more frequently than during the previous year along with instances of intense spikes of interest because of news events, we see that one word stands out in both categories."

According to the dictionary, the word was a “top look-up” during the historic Women’s March in January, and it also spiked again in February when President Trump’s close adviser, Kellyanne Conway, said she finds it difficult to call herself a feminist in a “classic sense” because “it seems to be very anti-male, and it certainly is very pro-abortion, and I’m neither anti-male or pro-abortions.”

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Merriam-Webster’s definition of feminism is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes" and “organized activity in support of women’s rights and interests.”

The word has continued to be a top trender as more women come forward with incidents of high-profile figures taking part in sexual misconduct.