Goblin mode, Vax, Climate emergency - How does Oxford pick 'Word of the Year'

'Goblin mode', 'Vax', 'Climate Emergency', and 'Toxic' — these are among the "Oxford Word of the Year" chosen in the last five years. "This year we went through the whole process until we reached the three finalists and decided rather than make the final decision ourselves reviewing the material and the data that was available, we would open it up to the public and have them make the decision around which of those three finalists they felt was the strongest word of the year," he said. With 3.18 lakh votes from across the globe, "Gobline mode" was the Word of the Year in 2022. In 2020, Oxford for the first time had chosen not to name a Word of the Year, describing 2020 as "a year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single word".