Story highlights Merriam-Webster picks "science" primarily based on numbers on its website

The word had the largest spike in look-ups, it says

Oxford's buzzworthy choice of "selfie" was a result of growing digital fame

Sorry, folks. Merriam-Webster's word of the year is not "selfie." And twerk is nowhere on the list, either.

Unlike the lads and ladies over at Oxford, Merriam-Webster has declared "science" its 2013 word of the year

Its number 2 word is cognitive.

Oxford's buzzworthy choice of "selfie" last month was a result of the word's growing usage and digital fame. But its U.S. counterpart picked "science" primarily based on numbers on its website.

It looked at the most searched-for words on its online dictionary, Merriam-Webster.com, and also those that showed the biggest increase in the number of look-ups.

The word with the largest spike? Science. A 176% increase in look-ups, to be exact.

"A wide variety of discussions centered on science this year, from climate change to educational policy," the dictionary editors said in a statement.

"We saw heated debates about 'phony' science, or whether science held all the answers. It's a topic that has great significance for us."

Merriam-Webster has a history of not getting too carried away by Internet memes.

Last year, Oxford American Dictionaries US pick for word of the year was "GIF" -- as in a compressed file format for images.