What is the word of the year 2017, how is it picked and what was last year’s winner?

AS 2017 draws to a close, a number of words have been on everyone's lips this year.

But what is the word of the year, and how is it chosen by the each leading dictionary?

What is the word of the year?

US dictionary Merriam-Webster has named “feminism” the 2017 word of the year.

A report from company said the number of searches for the word had increased 70 per cent on 2016.

Dictionary.com listed "complicit" as their word of the year, following articles on Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey, an inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 US election and when Ivanka Trump said she didn’t know what the term meant.

Meanwhile the Oxford Dictionary have chosen "youthquake" as their word of the year, reflecting a "political awakening" among millennial voters.

How is the word of the year chosen?

The word of the year is chosen to give insight into the collection curiosity of the public that year.

Merriam-Webster analyse which words have seen an increase in search on the site and seen a spike in news events.

The surge in online views of “feminism” has been driven by women marches in 2017 and an increase in stories on sexual assault and harassment claims.

And the dictionary also cited TV shows such as the Handmaid’s Tale and films like Wonder Woman as boosting searches.

Where did the word feminism come from?

The dictionary defines feminism as being "the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes".

Merriam-Webster’s company's editor at large, Peter Sokolowski, said the word “feminism” dates back to 14th century English.

It has its roots in Latin for “woman” and “female”.

It was first added to the dictionary by founder Noah Webster, in 1841, just before he died in 1843.

Peter said to The Associated Press: “It was a very new word at that time.

"His definition is not the definition that you and I would understand today. His definition was, 'The qualities of females,' so basically feminism to Noah Webster meant femaleness.

“We do see evidence that the word was used in the 19th century in a medical sense, for the physical characteristics of a developing teenager, before it was used as a political term, if you will."

What were the runners-up for the word of the year?

Merriam-Webster had nine runners-up for the word of year.

Here they are in no particular order:

• Complicit, competitor Dictionary.com's word of the year and used this year primarily driven by politics and SNL.
• Recuse, spiked in reference to Jeff Sessions and the Russia investigation.
• Empathy, a top look-up all year and frequently used in articles criticising Trump or Republicans.
• Dotard, a term used by Kim Jong-un to describe Trump.
• Syzygy, the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse.
• Gyro, which can be pronounced three different ways and spiked after a Jimmy Fallon sketch on "The Tonight Show."
• Federalism, following Lindsey Graham referencing it over the future of the Affordable Care Act.
• Hurricane, following Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose, and Maria which caused widespread damage to the southeastern U.S. and the Caribbean.
• Gaffe, following the awkward moment at the Academy Awards when the wrong best picture winner was announced for La La Land, when Moonlight was the real winner.

What was last year’s winner of word of the year?

After a spike in use around Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, the word “post-truth” was named as Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year in 2016.

Usage of the adjective, which describes circumstances where emotions and personal beliefs are more influential than facts, increased by around 2,000 per cent since 2015, research showed.

Its rise in popularity coincided with the use of the phrase “post-truth politics”, which was used last year in conjunction with the EU referendum and the US presidential race.

Post-truth was chosen from a shortlist that included “Brexiteer”, “alt-right” and “hygge”, a cosiness associated with contentment in Danish culture.