What do the words raw-dogging, ecotarian, delulu, slop, yapping and lore all have in common? Answer: they were all contenders for the 2024 word of the year – but didn’t quite make it.

Whether they’ve made their way into your personal vocabulary or not, they’ve certainly been influential enough for three of the most respected dictionaries – Collins, Oxford and Cambridge – to take them into consideration as terms that have summed up our collective experiences and conversations over the past 12 months. In the end, the crowns went to ‘Brat’ (referring to the album by Charli XCX,) ‘brain rot’ and ‘manifest’, respectively, decisions that sparked conversation about how the word of the year – WOTY to those in the know – is selected.

Is it purely scientific and monitored by machines tracking every viral tweet mentioning ‘eras’ or ‘romantasy’? Or could it be more traditional and cloak and dagger than we imagine: think clandestine societies squirrelling away newspaper clippings for months, guarding the details of their chosen selection like a top-secret recipe?

Brain rot, Brat or manifest? The surprising science behind how the word of the year gets chosen. Plus, Stylist declares our own