Cambridge Dictionary make ‘manifest’ their 2024 Word of the Year

Manifest. 

Verb. 

“To 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.”

Essentially willing something into existence through the power of positive thinking.

The word has been named the Word of the Year 2024 by Cambridge Dictionary, after a surge of celebrity-inspired popularity on social media.

It was looked up almost 130,000 times on the Cambridge Dictionary website this year, with mentions gaining traction on TikTok and other social media.

The word as an adjective meaning “easily noticed or obvious” and as a verb meaning “to show something clearly through signs or actions” dates back in English to at least the 1300s; but the dictionary’s decision to elect it as their Word of the Year rests on its newest meaning as a verb.

“In 2024, the word manifest jumped from being mainly used in the self-help community and on social media to being mentioned widely across mainstream media,” stated Cambridge Dictionary.

“When famous performers, star athletes, and influential entrepreneurs claim they have achieved something because they manifested it, they are using this verb in a more recent sense: to use specific practices to focus your mind on something you want, to try to make it become a reality.”

For instance, singer Dua Lipa has attributed her success – including headlining Glastonbury this year – to manifesting. Another celebrity who spoke of manifesting success this year was US Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, and fans of Sabrina Carpentercalled her a “manifesting queen” for her appearance with Taylor Swift on stage during the Eras Tour.

“When we choose a Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year, we have three considerations: user data, zeitgeist, and language,” says Wendalyn Nichols, the Publishing Manager of Cambridge Dictionary. “Manifest won 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.” 

The dangers of a pseudoscience

However, this scientifically unproven practice is controversial in its own way.

Sander van der Linden, a professor of social psychology at Cambridge University, cautioned that it had no scientific validity.

“Manifesting is what psychologists call ‘magical thinking’ or the general illusion that specific mental rituals can change the world around us,” said van der Linden. “Manifesting gained tremendous popularity during the pandemic on TikTok with billions of views, including the popular 3-6-9 method, which calls for writing down your wishes three times in the morning, six times in the afternoon and nine times before bed.” 

She continued: “This procedure promotes obsessive and compulsive behaviour with no discernible benefits. But can we really blame people for trying it, when prominent celebrities have been openly ‘manifesting’ their success?” 

“There is good research on the value of positive thinking, self-affirmation, and goal-setting… However, it is crucial to understand the difference between the power of positive thinking and moving reality with your mind – the former is healthy, whereas the latter is pseudoscience.”

Close but no cigar

Cambridge Dictionary has also shared the words that were strong contenders for 2024’s Word of the Year, including ‘brat’, Collins Dictionary’s Word of the Year (“Although using this term as an adjective (Charlie XCX called Kamala Harris brat, not a brat) is linguistically interesting, flipping a negative term to use it in a defiantly positive way is not an uncommon way we use language, and it doesn’t yet amount to a new meaning that would be entered in the dictionary”); ‘ecotarian’, which “reflects the growing movement towards environmentally conscious living”; and ‘resilience’, reflecting “the strength and adaptability needed in challenging times” (“However, there is not much to stay about it linguistically.”). 

They also revealed some of the words they’ve begun tracking this year: 

• Quishing: the scam of phishing via QR code. 

• Resenteeism: to continue doing your job but resent it. This blend of “resent” and “absenteeism” is appearing in business journalism. 

• Gymfluencer: a social media influencer whose content is focused on fitness or bodybuilding. 

• Cocktail party problem (also cocktail party effect): the difficulty of focusing on one voice when there are multiple speakers in the room. This term from audiology is now being used with reference to AI. 

• Vampire: a vampire device or vampire appliance is one which uses energy even when not in use. This is a new, adjective sense of an existing word.