MERRIAM-WEBSTER ANNOUNCES "BAILOUT"

AS 2008 WORD OF THE YEAR

SPRINGFIELD, MA, December 2008—Merriam-Webster Inc., America's leading language reference publisher, has announced the year's top ten words and definitions as culled from its popular Web site Merriam-Webster OnLine. The 2008 Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year list is based on users' anonymous hits to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Online Thesaurus.

The word of the year that received the highest intensity of lookups over the shortest period of time is "bailout," defined in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition as: "a rescue from financial distress."

"Typically our online dictionary lookups are for slightly difficult but still generic nonspecialized vocabulary," said John M. Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc, "but a word in the headlines can grab people's attention to become a most frequently looked-up word. This year's presidential campaign produced voluminous hits for words like 'vet,' 'bipartisan,' 'misogyny,' and the word used to describe both candidates on the Republican ticket, 'maverick.'"

One of the biggest event-related words of this election year and holder of the #3 spot is "socialism." "This word seems to have had two back-to-back boosts," said Mr. Morse. "The first was the question of whether federal bailouts of large banks were tantamount to socialism, and the second was 'Joe the Plumber' and other critics saying that U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama's economic plan was a form of socialism."

Traffic to Merriam-Webster OnLine now exceeds 125 million individual page views per month. On average, the company responds to approximately ten lookup requests in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary or Thesaurus per second. During peak hours, this may increase to more than 100 requests per second.

For the complete list of Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year, including definitions, please visit Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2008.