“Transgender” announced as a Word of the Year 2015

“Transgender” has been declared one of the top ten “Words of the Year” for 2015 by the Collins English Dictionary.

“The growing voice of trans people in the media, such as popular figures Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox, saw the use of transgender double and land itself as one of the ten ‘Collins Words of the Year’,” said Collins in a statement.

“Dadbod”, an un-toned, slightly plump yet attractive male physique, also became a phenomenon this year, thanks to paparazzi pictures of stars like Leo DiCaprio and Adam Sandler taking a dip in the sea.

The ultimate Word of the Year 2015, however, was “binge-watching”, the act of watching consecutive episodes of a television series in one sitting.

“The days of missing an episode or having to wait a week for the next have been long gone for years, but screenwriters evidently upped their game in 2015 and we lost all self-control,” said the dictionary’s publishers, noting that use of the term is up some 200% compared to 2014.

Other words of the year include “clean-eating” (eating healthily), “ghosting” (the act of ignoring all phone calls, emails and texts) and “swipe” (sorting through profile images on dating apps).

“Manspreading” (when men sit with their legs splayed taking up space in public spaces) also made the list, as did “shaming” (slating someone on social media for an inappropriate or politically incorrect post).