By Faith Karimi
(CNN) — Sorry, folks. Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is not “selfie.” And twerk is nowhere on the list, either.
Unlike the lads and ladies over at Oxford, Merriam-Webster has declared “science” its 2013 word of the year.
Its number 2 word is cognitive.
Oxford’s buzzworthy choice of “selfie” last month was a result of the word’s growing usage and digital fame. But its U.S. counterpart picked “science” primarily based on numbers on its website.
It looked at the most searched-for words on its online dictionary, Merriam-Webster.com, and also those that showed the biggest increase in the number of look-ups.
The word with the largest spike? Science. A 176% increase in look-ups, to be exact.
“A wide variety of discussions centered on science this year, from climate change to educational policy,” the dictionary editors said in a statement.
“We saw heated debates about ‘phony’ science, or whether science held all the answers. It’s a topic that has great significance for us.”
Merriam-Webster has a history of not getting too carried away by Internet memes.
Last year, Oxford American Dictionaries US pick for word of the year was “GIF” — as in a compressed file format for images.
What did Merriam-Webster go with? Socialism and capitalism.
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