Breathe in, breathe out. The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is: 'Vape.'

vape, verb: Inhale and exhale the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device.

vape, noun: An electronic cigarette or similar device; an act of inhaling and exhaling the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device.

According to Oxford Dictionaries editors, use of the word "vape" in 2014 has shot up to more than double its use in 2013. It arrived just in time to fill the gap left by the word “smoking” as many switched to electronic cigarettes, now a multi-million dollar industry. A “vaping lexicon” has sprung up around the word, with phrases like “vape pen” and “vape shop” also increasing in popularity.

“We’ve been tracking the rise of the word ‘vape’ with interest and it definitely peaked this year,” said Casper Grathwohl, President of the Dictionaries Division. ‘Vape’ “sat at the center of several rich cultural conversations: the debate over private versus community rights; regulation and public health; and our relationship to our visible vices. Given the booming e-cigarette market sector, expect to hear more from ‘vape’ in the years to come.”

The Oxford Dictionaries announced the word Monday night, noting that it dates back to the early 1980s, well before the invention of the electronic cigarette in 2003. They trace its earliest-known use to a 1983 New Society article, in which Rob Stepney described a potential alternative to traditional smoking. “The new habit, if it catches on, would be known as vaping,” he wrote.

The Word of the Year, as defined by the Oxford Dictionaries, is “a word, or expression, that we can see has attracted a great deal of interest during the year to date.” It is selected regardless of whether it was coined recently or has already been included in the Oxford dictionary. In August, ‘vape’ was added to oxforddictionaries.com, but is still under consideration for inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

This year’s shortlist for Word of the Year included:

bae, noun: Used as a term of endearment for one’s romantic partner.

budtender, noun: A person whose job is to serve customers in a cannabis dispensary or shop.

contactless, adjective: Relating to or involving technologies that allow a smart card, mobile phone, etc. to contact wirelessly to an electronic reader, typically in order to make a payment.

indyref, noun: The referendum on Scottish independence, held in Scotland on 18 September 2014, in which voters were asked to answer yes or no to the question “Should Scotland be an independent country?”

normcore, noun: A trend in which ordinary,unfashionable clothing is worn as a deliberate fashion statement.

slacktivism, noun, informal: Actions performed via the Internet in support of a political or social cause but regarded as requiring little time or involvement, e.g. signing an online petition or joining a campaign group on a social media website.