'Manifest' is Cambridge Dictionary's 2024 word of the year, because maybe the universe listens | CBC News (2024)

Natalie Stechyson · CBC News

· Posted: Nov 20, 2024 11:45 AM EST | Last Updated: November 20

You might say they put it out to the universe.

Cambridge Dictionary has announced that its 2024 word of the year is "manifest," a formal 600-year-old wordthat's been given new life by Olympians like Simone Biles, entertainers likeDua Lipa,and people across social media who increasingly use the word to describechannellingtheir dreams into successes.

As a verb,manifestmeansto use methods such as visualization and affirmation to "help you imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen," the dictionary explains on its website. 

Prior to 2024, the word was mainly used in the self-help community, according to Cambridge Dictionary. But that changed this yearas U.S. gymnastBilestalked about manifesting her success at the Paris Olympics,andsinger Dua Lipaof the album Radical Optimism said she manifested headliningto acrowd of 100,000 fans at the Glastonbury music festival.

"If you set an intention and you think about it every single day of your life, and for me, Glastonbury for example, when I first started making music I dreamed about the day that I would get asked to headline Glastonbury," the singer said in an Aprilinterviewwith the Zack Sang Show.

A rise in "manifesting influencers" also promotesthe practice on social media as part of thetrillion-dollar global wellness market, according to the Marketplace Morning Report. On TikTok, there are 1.6 million videos tagged with the hashtag #manifesting.

This year, manifest was looked up on the Cambridge Dictionary website more than 130,000 times.

"When we choose a Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year, we have three considerations: user data, zeitgeist, and language. What word was looked up the most, or spiked? Which one really captures what was happening in that year? And what is interesting about this word from a language point of view?"Wendalyn Nichols, Cambridge Dictionary'spublishing manager, said in a news release.

"Manifestwon this year because it increased notably in lookups, its use widened greatly across all types of media, and it shows how the meanings of a word can change over time."

WATCH | Defining some new words added to the dictionary last year:

Manifesting manifest

Google searches for "manifesting" started skyrocketing globally in 2020, increasing nearly 430per cent between March and July that year alone, according to Google Trends data.

Takenfrom Latin and French, manifest was first used in English as an adjective meaning "easily noticed or obvious,"then a verb that meant "to show something clearly," according to Cambridge. Itappeared in Geoffrey Chaucer'sBoeceasan adjective in 1380, where the author wrote, "It is cleer and manyfest that it is propre to the devyne thought."

Now, on TikTokand Instagram, influencers like Toronto "mindset coach" Alicia Tghilian and U.S. influencer Laura Galebe teach followers "the best way to manifest anything," and "how to manifest anything you want in 2024."

It's alsocommonly used byathletes, like U.S. marathon swimmer Ivan Puskovitch, whosaid in an interview with WDTV that he visualized qualifying for the Olympics.

"My whole life I've been writing it down, writingit down, trying to physically manifest it, verbally manifest, visually manifest it,"the swimmer said in February."And I never would've written that goal down if I didn't think it was something I could achieve."

Manifest joinsthe ranks of "brat" as one of this year's top words.Collins Dictionary declared "brat"— the album title that became a summer-living ideal — its 2024 word of the year. Oxford Dictionary has yet to announce its word for 2024 but the short list includesbrain rot, demure, dynamic pricing, lore, romantasyand slop.

Last year, Oxford's word of the year was "rizz," defined by the dictionary as "style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner." Cambridge Dictionary's 2023 word of the year was "hallucinate," a reflection of the rise of generative artificial intelligence.

WATCH | What... is brat?

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