Nominate your 2023 words of the year here.
Since 1990, the American Dialect Society has selected words of the year to highlight language change and to bring a few aspects of the study of linguistics to the public’s attention. The lighthearted vote is held each year at the time of the society’s annual conference. This vote for 2023 Word of the Year will be held at the Times Square Sheraton Hotel in New York City in conjunction with the 2024 annual meetings of the American Dialect Society and the Linguistic Society of America.
In advance of this (in)auspicious proceeding, we are once again fielding nominations from across the lexically inclined world and beyond. Below, please give your nomination for an overall word of the year. Although this is certainly not required, we’ve also left space for you to tell us a little about this word or provide rationale for your choice (this information helps us organize nominees into ballot categories).
We know it is hard to choose one word overall, so you may submit up to three top choices or upload a list. And don’t worry, you can fill out this survey as many times as you’d like throughout the year as new words form!
Some guidelines for making nominations:
- We are most interested in WOTY nominations which reflect your personal experience of 2023.
- For the sake of the WOTY vote, “word” is broadly defined to include multiword phrases, compounds, idiomatic expressions, and even emoji that behave like single lexical items.
- Nominated words do not have to be absolutely brand new but they should have reached some kind of peak in 2023. Ideal WOTY nominations are words which demonstrate widespread usage by a large number of people, in a variety of contexts and situations, and/or which reflect important events, people, places, ideas, or preoccupations of language users in 2023.
- Some illustrative examples of past winners include she as Word of the Millennium 2000; YouTube (as a verb) as Most Likely to Succeed 2006; the combining and nominalized forms of Occupy- as WOTY 2011; yeet as Informal WOTY 2018; and Before Times as Most Useful WOTY 2020.
For a list of all past Word of the Year nominees and winners in various categories, click here.
Nominate your 2023 words of the year here.
The American Dialect Society will hold its annual meeting in conjunction with the Linguistic Society of America Thursday, January 4, through Sunday, January 7, 2024, in New York, NY. The meeting will be held at the Sheraton Times Square.
Please read these instructions carefully as they have changed from previous years.
Monday, August 28, 2023 is the deadline for poster and 20-minute paper proposals.
Proposals should address topics related to English varieties in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages that influence or are influenced by these varieties. We also encourage topics related to lexicography, linguistic atlas projects, linguistic landscapes, language and society, and public language-awareness programs.
Important: You should only include the title of the study at the top of the abstract. Do not include your name or other identifying information on the abstract. Abstracts that include author’s names will not be considered. Please indicate in your abstract if the proposal is for a paper or poster. Do not send the same proposal to both ADS and LSA, and do not submit proposals based on research that has been previously presented elsewhere (e.g., NWAV).
Submissions are limited to two per author, one paper and one poster, one of which must be co-authored. If you submit two co-authored proposals with the same or different co-author(s), only one proposal can be for a paper and the other must be for a poster.
Posters: At this meeting the poster session will be online in Gather, an online community platform. We encourage those of you who may not be able to attend the meeting in-person to submit a proposal for the poster session.
Abstracts of no more than 500 words as a PDF will be submitted, reviewed, and processed for ADS2024 via the EasyChair system using the following website:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ads2024
Three important notes about submitting through EasyChair, especially if you’re new to this system: (1) because EasyChair publishes conference proceedings, you’ll see the option to upload a complete paper—just ignore that option; (2) EasyChair is based in England and its clock keeps Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), so submissions will close automatically at 23:59 GMT, which is not a North American end of the day. We recommend submitting your abstract on or before August 27th because the system will not accept late submissions; and (3) the system will not allow you to upload an abstract longer than 500 words, including title, references, etc. If the system won’t accept your submission, check to see if you’ve inadvertently exceeded the word limit.
Proposals will be judged anonymously by a minimum of two reviewers. If your proposal is accepted, you’ll be asked for an abstract of no more than 100 words for the LSA program.
Presenters must be current members of the American Dialect Society.
Panels: The ADS Executive Committee has the following policy regarding panels (besides the teaching panel): only especially timely panels will be considered for the programs of annual meetings. Typically, panels are given an hour and a half to present and may be limited to three presenters to allow for an overall introduction, conclusion, and discussion. If you have questions about the policy or would like to propose an especially timely panel, please contact Patricia Cukor-Avila patricia.cukor-avila@unt.edu
Audio-visual equipment: An LCD projector with sound will be available for all presentations, along with a microphone. If you will need other equipment, please say so when you send your proposal.
Schedule: The meeting will begin on Thursday afternoon, January 4 with the Executive Council and annual business meeting, followed by program sessions. The Word of the Year (WOTY) nominations will be held Thursday evening with the WOTY vote in the early evening of Friday, January 5. The Annual ADS luncheon will be held on Saturday January 6. The meeting will end early afternoon on Sunday January 7.
WOTY: As we have done for a quarter of a century, we will choose candidates for Word of the Year on Thursday and vote for our WOTY the next day. Nominations for WOTY can be submitted all year long to woty@americandialect.org.
Session chairs: If you’re interested in chairing a session, contact Patricia Cukor-Avila patricia.cukor-avila@unt.edu
Travel grants for students: Two travel grants of $500 each will be awarded at the meeting to students whose papers or posters have been chosen for the program. Please send nominations in the form of a letter to ADS Vice President and Program Chair, Patricia Cukor-Avila patricia.cukor-avila@unt.edu. The deadline for nominations is October 30, 2023. Nominations will not be accepted after this date.
Travel grant for an ADS member: The ninth annual Audrey Duckert Memorial Travel Award of $500 to attend the Annual Meeting will be given to an ADS member. Audrey Duckert was a long-time member of ADS and co-founder of the Dictionary of American Regional English. The recipient will be chosen by ADS President, Kathryn Remlinger: remlingk@gvsu.edu. Applications in the form of a letter to President Remlinger are due October 30, 2023. Applications sent after this date will not be considered.
Meeting and hotel registration: ADS members are eligible to reserve rooms and register for the meeting at LSA member rates. If you are not a member you can access membership information at https://www.americandialect.org/membership. ADS members will need to register for both ADS and LSA through the LSA website. Registration for the ADS luncheon can be done at the same time through the LSA website.
