AP photo / charles krupa

‘pragmatic’ is the merriam-webster’s 2011 word of the year. searches on the word, which the dictionary defines as: ‘relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters : practical as opposed to idealistic …’ skyrocketed during the weeks leading up to congress voting in august, to increase the USA’s debt ceiling.

a new feature on merriam-webster’s site allows users to tell the dictionary publisher why they looked up a particular word, and users typed in ‘pragmatic’ to affirm its positive connotations. ‘pragmatic’ beat out word contenders such as ‘occupy’, which was in close running due to interest in the occupy wall street protests.

previous ‘words of the year’ have included: austerity (2010), admonish (2009) and bailout (2008)…

— via CBS news