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'Socialism,' 'Capitalism' Tie For Merriam-Webster's Top Word Of 2012

STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com) — Merriam-Webster Inc. released the Top Ten Words of the Year Wednesday, revealing the nation's interest in the 2012 presidential election.

Socialism and capitalism tied for the top spot.

"We saw a huge spike for socialism on Election Day itself, but interest in both words was very high all year," Editor at Large Peter Sokolowski said in a statement. "Lookups of one word often led to lookups of the other."

The list of top words is generated based on the volume of user searches on Merriam-Webster.com.

Merriam-Webster's Top Ten Words of the Year for 2012 are:

  1. socialism and capitalism
  2. touché
  3. bigot
  4. marriage
  5. democracy
  6. professionalism
  7. globalization
  8. malarkey
  9. schadenfreude
  10. meme
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