Bhubaneswar: Cambridge Dictionary, a dictionary and thesaurus published by Cambridge University Press, has chosen ‘Perseverance’ as its word of the year for 2021.
Perseverance was chosen as ‘Word of the Year’ not only because of the high volume of searches but also because it captures the undaunted will of people across the world to never give up, despite the many prevailing challenges of 2021, the dictionary mentioned in its website.
Wendalyn Nichols of Cambridge Dictionary quoted, “It suggested that the word perseverance was being encountered more frequently by Cambridge Dictionary users in 2021.
“Just as it takes perseverance to land a rover on Mars, it takes perseverance to face the challenges and disruption to our lives from Covid-19, climate disasters, political instability and conflict. We appreciated that connection, and we think Cambridge Dictionary fans do, too.”
According to Cambridge Dictionary, the word ‘perseverance’ saw a high number of searches on Cambridge Dictionary throughout 2021, with more than 243,000 views so far this year.
After NASA’s Perseverance rover made its final descent to Mars, the dictionary saw a great peak in searches during February 18-24. According to website, before this year, Perseverance hadn’t appeared noticeably in search data on the dictionary’s website. The changes with the peak in searched occurred for the word in February 2021.
Cambridge University Press, which published its first book in 1584, has been publishing dictionaries since 1995 even started offering completely free online services in 1999.
