More than half the Collins Dictionary 2017 “Word of the Year” shortlist are phrases

“Fake news” has been named word of the year by Collins Dictionary after a 365 per cent rise in use since 2016 and it’s caused both (mild) anger and (mild) confusion.

‘Fake news’ has been declared word of the year. Fake news. It’s two words.

— Mr Roger Quimbly (@RogerQuimbly) November 2, 2017

https://twitter.com/MartinBelam/status/926000113880838144

Honestly can't work out if 'Fake News' has been named word of the year or not really.

— Tiernan Douieb (@TiernanDouieb) November 2, 2017

https://twitter.com/jacksonwild0103/status/926017689277140992

https://twitter.com/adamguest1985/status/926038750483886080

Collins say they will add all the shortlisted words to their website, though you don’t have to be a scholar to know that “fake” and “news” are already in there. It turns out that six out of ten of their shortlisted words of the year are two words. Not that we’re telling a dictionary to look up the meaning of “word”.

1. Fake news
2. Antifa
3. Corbynmania
4. Cuffing season
5. Echo chamber
6. Fidget spinner
7. Gender-fluid
8. Gig economy
9. Insta
10. Unicorn

Fairly sure “unicorn” is already in the dictionary as well – a few chapters after “pedantic”.