More than 6,000 children aged 6 to 14 took part in selection and voting in the annual research, which is run by the Oxford University Press.
The word of the year for 2024 is "kindness", having won 61% of the votes in the poll. OUP’s research reveals that concerns about mental health are behind the choice of word for many of the young respondents.
Runner-up was “artificial intelligence”, voted for by 25%, while in third place reflecting the current volatile global context was “conflict”, with 7% of the votes.
The OUP poll also asked children to nominate and vote for the slang word of the year, which for 2024 was selected as “slay” – voted for by 28% of respondents.
Slay is a term which means to impress or amuse someone, or be extremely impressive, stylish or successful – as in “you totally slay in that dress!”
The terms "sigma" and "skibidi" were voted as second and third choices respectively (16% and 15%) highlighting the influential role social media plays on children’s language.
“Sigma” means good or cool and can be used to describe males who are regarded as cool and admirable, especially in an independent and individualistic way.
”Skibidi” can be used to mean cool or bad. Its meaning changes depending on the word it is paired with, such as "skibidi Ohio" (something that is weird or eccentric), or "skibidi toilet" (something that is really bad).
Each year, OUP creates a shortlist for its words of the year with thousands of children making suggestions via its Education Research Forum. The final three choices are then put to a national vote.
In 2023, the word of the year was “climate change”, whereas in 2022 it was “queen” – following the death of Queen Elizabeth II – and in 2021 it was “anxiety”. Ten years ago in 2015, the word of the year was “#hashtag”.
One young person taking part in the research this time around commented on their choice of kindness: “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle we know nothing about. We should treat everyone with kindness. You never truly know how much it could help someone.”
On the choice of AI, one young person perhaps summed up the view of many: “I think that the world is a better place with AI as long as they do not take over our lives.”
And on the choice of “conflict”, one young person added: “It seems like most of the world is in conflict – with other countries, people with other people, and so on.”
- You can download the OUP Children’s Word of the Year report via https://global.oup.com/education/content/dictionaries/key-issues/childrens-language/oxford-childrens-word-of-the-year/