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500 Words 2019

Oxford Children's Word of the Year 2019


The 2019 Oxford Children's Word of the Year is . . . 'BREXIT'!

Oxford Children's Word of the Year 2019


The 2019 Oxford Children's Word of the Year is . . . 'BREXIT'!

Oxford Dictionaries for Children has once again teamed up with BBC Radio 2's 500 WORDS—the nationwide competition to find the most talented young writers!

Almost 113,000 children entered BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words competition this year, and the team at Oxford Children’s Dictionaries has been poring over all 112,986 entries to reveal a wealth of insights into children’s evolving use of language, and identify the 2019 Children’s Word of the Year as ‘Brexit’.

Why Brexit?

Brexit was identified as our Children’s Word of the Year not only because of its significant increase in use (a total rise of 464% since 2018) but also because of the political and social awareness that children demonstrated in their stories and the variety of contexts in which it was mentioned by entrants.

In 2018, the term was mainly mentioned in the context of an item on the news or as a boring topic of conversation, but in 2019 this extended to demonstrate awareness of political and social upheaval, and inspired children to write about finding imaginative solutions to Brexit.

For detailed analysis, read the 2019 Oxford Corpus Summary Report.

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Brexit - Children's Word of the Year

Brexit - Children's Word of the Year 2019

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