Top 20 Words, Names and Phrases of 2013

The words and phrases most used in 2013 are symptomatic of the times we live in. I don't know whether to laugh or cry that both 'surveillance' and 'twerking' appear on the same list.

TOP WORDS OF 2013
1. 404
2. Fail
3. Hashtag
4. @Pontifex
5. The Optic
6. Surveillance
7. Drones
8. Deficit
9. Sequestration
10. Emancipate
11. Filibuster
12. Nano
13. Twerking
14. Deadlock
15. Franken
16. Meme
17. Stalemate
18. The Cloud
19. Phony
20. Comet

TOP PHRASES OF 2013
1. Toxic Politics
2. Federal Shutdown
3. Global Warming/Climate Change
4. Federal Deficit
5. Tread Lightly
6. Boston Strong
7. Marathon Bombing
8. Chemical Weapons
9. All Time High
10. Rogue nukes
11. Near-Earth Asteroid
12. Arab Spring
13. Solar max
14. Big Data
15. Ethical/Sustainable Fashion

TOP NAMES OF 2013
1. Pope Francis
2. Obama Care
3. NSA – The National Security Agency
4. Ed Snowden
5. Kate Middleton
6. IRS - The Internal Revenue Service
7. Ted Cruz - Tea Party supporter and Texas senator
8. Chris Christie - Governor of New Jersey
9. Tea Party
10. Marathon Bombers
11. Malala Yousafzai - The Pakistani girl shot by terrorists
12. Xi Jinping - China's leader
13. President Obama
14. Hassan Rouhani — Newly elected president of Iran.
15. Sochi Olympics