海角大神

Political lexicon inundated more than just TV commercials and newspaper columns this election season. It also drove Americans to Merriam-Webster鈥檚 online dictionary, helping them make sense of the vitriol.

On Wednesday, the dictionary publisher shared its Top 10 words, based on the volume of user lookups at Merriam-Webster.com. Political words dominated the list. Sharing the No. 1 spot: socialism and capitalism.

"They're words that sort of encapsulate the zeitgeist. They're words that are in the national conversation," Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster鈥檚 editor at large, told the Associated Press. "The thing about an election year is it generates a huge amount of very specific interest."

Socialism 鈥� 鈥渁ny of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods鈥� 鈥� drew its largest lookup spikes during health-care reform coverage as well as during the political conventions and presidential debates.

Capitalism 鈥� 鈥渁n economic system characterized by聽private聽or corporate ownership of聽capital聽goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a聽free market鈥� 鈥� followed similar traffic trends but was looked up slightly less often.

"With socialism and capitalism, it's clear that many people turned to the dictionary to help make sense of the commentary that often surrounds these words,鈥� said John Morse, president and publisher at Merriam-Webster, in a press release.

Making sense of the commentary meant understanding the negative connotations attached to both words, which was often injected into political debates and campaign ads.

Conservatives called President Obama a socialist, attacking wealth redistribution policies such as health-care reform, tax increases for the wealthy, and entitlement programs such as food stamps. Liberals hit back at Mitt Romney for his experience at his venture capital firm, Bain Capital, which they accused of killing jobs in the US. Even Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a fellow Republican, called Mr. Romney a 鈥渧ulture capitalist鈥� during the primary.

Beyond socialism and capitalism, the list included other political words: Democracy ranked No. 5, globalization No. 7, as well as bigot (No. 3) and marriage (No. 4), which were driven by the same-sex marriage debate.

Words indirectly related to politics represent lighter side of election season.

During the vice presidential debate, Joe Biden said to Paul Ryan: 鈥淲ith all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey.鈥�

Defined as 鈥渋nsincere or foolish talk鈥� 鈥� malarkey was a 鈥渙ne-week wonder鈥� word, said Sokolowski. The No. 8-ranked word had the largest spike of lookups in a 24-hour period: 3,000 percent.

This year鈥檚 presidential debates inspired three viral memes: Romney 鈥渇iring鈥� Big Bird, his 鈥渂inders full of women,鈥� and Obama鈥檚 military analogy to horses and bayonets. Meme 鈥� 鈥渁n idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture鈥� 鈥� was coined in 1976 by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and ranked No. 10.

鈥淲ith Facebook, Twitter and other social media, online response to news events has become simultaneous commentary 鈥� and parody,鈥� Sokolowski said in the press release. 鈥淭he word meme聽now sometimes serves as the noun form of the adjective viral.鈥�

Liberals' post-election analysis often included the No. 9 word, schadenfreude 鈥� a German word meaning 鈥渆njoyment obtained from the troubles of others.鈥�

Rounding out the list: No. 2 touch茅 鈥� 鈥渦sed to acknowledge a hit in fencing or the success or appropriateness of an argument, an accusation, or a witty point鈥� 鈥� and No. 6 professionalism 鈥� 鈥渢he聽conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession聽or a聽professional聽person.鈥�