WORD OF THE YEAR

Merriam Webster has chosen "surreal" as The  2016 Word Of The Year.

SURREAL:  marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream;  synonyms include "unbelievable" and "fantastic".  

Surreal is a relatively new word in English and derives from the word "surrealism" which was the artistic movement in the 1900s that attempted to depict the unconscious mind by dreamlike ways as above and beyond reality.  The word "surreal" usage dates to the 1930s and was first defined in Merriam Webster's Dictionary in 1967.

How are words of the year chosen?  Merriam Webster tracks words which are "looked up" more significantly than they were the previous year.  After significant events in 2016 such as the death of Prince, the terrorist  attack in Brussels, the attempted coup in Turkey, and, obviously, the presidential election, the following words, topped by SURREAL, had the greatest traffic:

REVENANT
ICON 
IN OMNIA PARATUS
BIGLY
DEPLORABLE
IRREGARDLESS
ASSUMPSIT
FAUTE DE MIEUX
FECKLESS