Oxford University Press has joined several other dictionaries in announcing its word of the year.
A virtual reality environment in which users interact with one another’s avatars and their surroundings in an immersive way, sometimes posited as a potential extension of or replacement for the internet, World Wide Web, social media, etc.“Given the year we’ve just experienced, ‘Goblin mode’ resonates with all of us who are feeling a little overwhelmed at this point,” said Grathwohl.
“People are embracing their inner goblin, and voters choosing ‘goblin mode’ as the Word of the Year tells us the concept is likely here to stay.” The term rose in popularity as Covid lockdown restrictions eased in many countries and people ventured out of their homes more regularly. Oxford said that until late 2021, there was relatively little sustained usage of the word outside specialist contexts.“While some of this increase can be attributed to the name change of social media conglomerate Facebook in October 2021, the concept of the ‘metaverse’, how we use it, and what it means for the future, has also been widely discussed. Words commonly occurring near ‘metaverse’ include Web3, virtual, NFT, crypto, build , and vision ,” it stated.