The 50 Most Looked-Up Words on the New York Times Website

The New York Times Crossword Puzzle

New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz must be having a field day with this one.

The NYTimes has a feature on their website where a visitor can double-click any word in any article and be presented with the definition of what that word means.

And, just like everything on the Internet, such usage is tracked.  And if it’s tracked, then it’s something that can be reported.

Here are the 50 MOST LOOKED UP WORDS ON THE NEW YORK TIMES WEBSITE, by you – their readers.

1. inchoate — and because Web Watch cares, we’ll share with you what the definition is of the #1 most-often looked up word:    ”Being only partly in existence or operation; imperfectly formed.  See also “formless” or “incoherent”
2. profligacy
3. sui generis
4. austerity
5. profligate
6. baldenfreude
7. opprobrium
8. apostates
9. solipsistic
10. obduracy
11. Internecine
12. soporific
13. Kristallnacht
14. peripatetic
15. nascent
16. desultory
17. redoubtable
18. hubris
19. mirabile dictu
20. crèches
21. apoplectic
22. overhaul
23. ersatz
24. obstreperous
25. jejune
26. omertà
27. putative
28. Manichean
29. canard
30. ubiquitous
31. atavistic
32. renminbi
33. sanguine
34. antediluvian
35. cynosure
36. alacrity
37. epistemic
38. egregious
39. incendiary
40. chimera
41. laconic
42. polemicist
43. comity
44. provenance
45. sclerotic
46. prescient
47. hegemony
48. verisimilitude
49. feckless
50. démarche