The distinguished, award-winning dictionary site and renowned publishing firm Merriam Webster, based in Massachusetts, United States just declared the ‘word of the year’ for 2017.

The word of the year, is of course, elected upon a term that is most searched and looked up for on the World Wide Web. But while there were several terms such as Gaffe, Dotard, Syzgy that turned up the most in wide numbers, a word stood apart. That was ‘feminism’.

Merriam Webster’s word of the year- feminism- it appears was looked up throughout the year from different parts of the globe, leading to a spike in its search from varied geographies.

That said, it isn’t much of a surprise, after all. Since earlier in 2017, there was the widely-reported and hugely-followed “Women’s Walk” that was held in Washington D.C.; not any random rabble-rouser, rather a cohesive gathering sparking the idea of women’s unity. While this may have led to a rise in the usage and interpretation of the phrase ‘feminism’, it was also followed up with discussions whether the march was after all- pertaining to feminism or not.

Similarly, in different parts of Germany, right at the beginning of this year, protests against last year’s new year’s eve’ molestation of women at Koln also led to protests and gathering in cities like Berlin and Stuttgart. This might have been etched to the idea of feminism.

Similarly, the usage of the phrase feminism was quite widespread owing to women of distinguished talents, caliber and vocation. Earlier in 2017 when famous political candidate Kellyanne Conway – the current Counselor to the President of United States- declared that she wasn’t a feminist, the move led to many question the inherent meaning of the word that invariably led to searches once again.

But to say that political statements or women-centric movements or activism only led to more and more of the world looking up for the meaning of feminism would be the half-hearted truth. 2017 also saw the world hold its breath in front of the alluring charm of Israeli-born American actress Gal Gadot. When Gal essayed the titular role in Wonder Woman- it fashioned a brilliant cinematic narration of feminism. One got to see women power in a leading new light, checkered by courage and picturised by a sense of selflessness.

Also playing a crucial part in the world being inquisitive about feminism were essential events such as the coming together of women to raise a vocal assault against a dreaded evil albeit one deeply rooted even now in the present day society: #MeToo movement took off in raising an alarm against sexual molestation and was widely received for its spirit of raising awareness about sexual harassment.