The Cambridge Dictionary reveals its word of the year for 2024
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The Cambridge Dictionary reveals its word of the year for 2024

The Cambridge Dictionary has named “Manifesto” as its word of the year for 2024.

First popularized by celebrities such as singer Dua Lipa, the term has taken over the mainstream media and pop culture landscape and has become a household word among many people worldwide.

Manifesting or manifesting is the practice of using “methods such as visualization and affirmation to help you imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen.”

According to the British dictionary, it began to be used in the 20th centuryTh century as a way “to make something happen by internalizing it, intentionally or unintentionally.”

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It has since become a word used by the public on a daily basis and has been searched nearly 130,000 times on the dictionary’s website.

“Year 2024, the word manifest jumped from being mainly used in the self-help community and on social media to being widely mentioned in mainstream media,” it wrote.

“The use of this sense of manifest has gained in popularity with the increasing number of ‘manifesting influencers’ promoting this scientifically unproven practice on social media – so much so that it was added to the Cambridge Dictionary in May 2023.”

Cambridge Dictionary’s publishing director, Wendalyn Nichols, said the word of the year is chosen based on “user data, zeitgeist and language.”

Manifest won this year because it saw a significant increase in searches, its use was significantly broadened across all types of media, and it shows how the meaning of a word can change over time, says Nichols.

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Singer Dua Lipa, who is known for her devotion to manifesting, explained what manifesting means to her in an interview in April.

“If you set an intention and you think about it every day of your life, and for me, Glastonbury, for example, when I first started making music, I dreamed of the day when I would be asked to headline Glastonbury,” she said.

“And I’ve probably thought about it every single session I’m in the studio because when I write a song I think I go ‘oh what’s this going to sound like at Glastonbury?’

She added that she believed that manifestation has played a big role in her success.

Here are some words that others guessed could have been the 2024 word of the year.

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