The Central Texas based Global Language Monitor is out with its top words for 2014.
The 15 year-old ranking doesn't just pick the most popular words based on what one segment of the English speaking world is doing. A bunch of hits on YouTube, or a single event won't usually give something "word of the year" status.
The monitor's Paul Payack says the organization uses multiple measures to pick its words, including this year's winner: The heart emoji. Payack says that was the clear winner…even if traditional tracking methods can only pick up some of the symbol's use.
"A very significant minimum. It might be 10 billion. It might be 100 billion. We can track at least one billion times a day just through Twitter and things of that nature," Payack said of the methods used to track this year's word of the year.
Also on the list this year: Hashtag was the 2nd most popular word. With Vape – as in smoking an e-cigarette taking 3rd place. Other winners include Ebola as the top name of the year and "Hands Up Don't Shoot" as the top phrase.
