Perhaps we can credit the message and social-media machinations from teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg, or deep-pocketed investments like this just-revealed solar play from Bill Gates. Either way, Oxford Dictionaries says its word of the year for 2019 reflects a new urgency rippling through the social, business and political lexicon:

“ ‘climate emergency’ ”

The publisher’s annual selection reflects the ethos, mood or preoccupations of the passing year, and has lasting potential as a term of cultural significance, Oxford explained in a release Wednesday.