London, UK: “Queen” has been selected by young people as the Oxford children’s word of the year for 2022. Oxford University Press (OUP) surveyed their word of the year “Queen” was selected by nearly half of the children.
According to OUP, feelings of pride connected with the late monarch as well as sadness and loss. Compared to boys, girls were more likely to select “Queen” as their top term (52 percent of girls chose “Queen” against 39 percent of boys).
The Oxford Children’s Corpus, the largest children’s English language database in the world with over 500 million words was reviewed, and it was discovered that Queen Elizabeth was frequently listed among the Top 10 celebrities that kids wrote about throughout the years.
“It comes as no surprise that ‘Queen’ is children’s word of the year for 2022. This not only reflects Her Majesty’s 70 years of incredible service, but over the past decade our research consistently reveals how attuned children are to the news and the impact current affairs have on their language. It’s vital we continue to invest in language development and ensure children have access to a wide range of vocabulary in order to feel equipped to process and discuss the news,” Ms. Helen Freeman, director of Oxford Children’s Books, remarked.
In previous years, to find the children’s word of the year, OUP analysed children’s writing submitted via the BBC 500 Words creative writing competition. However, this year it changed the methodology, instead asking 4,000 children aged six to 14 across the country for their suggested word of 2022, as per the statement.