It's an election promise you can count on.

The all-important democracy sausage is a staple at polling booths across the nation on election day.

But now the term describing the time-honoured culinary tradition has been given the recognition it deserves — being crowned Australia's Word of the Year for 2016.

The Australian National Dictionary Centre, which selected the winning word, found the term first came into circulation in 2012 but rose to prominence during this year's federal election.

The simple snag was so crucial to voters on election day that there were multiple websites created to help voters locate their closest barbeque.

"Arguably, the democracy sausage has been one of the best things to come out of a tumultuous year in politics and political campaigning," the centre's Amanda Laugesen said.

Australians' love of the "sausage sanga" became evident when Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was subjected to condemnation on social media when he was captured eating a snag incorrectly.

"Its use was also boosted by a controversial incident where Mr Shorten — who noted his sausage sandwich was 'the taste of democracy' — ate his sausage from the middle," Ms Laugesen said.

The Word of the Year is chosen from pop culture research conducted at the centre based at the Australian National University and public input.

Shoey, Ausexit, census fail gun for title

But there was some tough competition for the title, from words such as shoey, smashed avo, census fail, deplorables and Ausexit.

All the words that were in contention were pulled from Australian popular culture and in someway "defined the year".

Research into the Australian language is undertaken by the National Dictionary Centre and the University of Oxford.

You can rest assured that Australia's love of sausage sizzles has been acknowledged.

Happy eatings.