Forget Spotify Wrapped or your yearly Monzo spending report, the word of the year is the cultural marker we all look towards to sum up our collective experience of 2024. But just how did the big three dictionaries come to the decision that Brat, manifest and brain rot were the best reflections of the year we’ve lived through? The language expert who has sat on Oxford Dictionary’s selection panel since 2012 explains all, sharing the biggest controversies, backlash and what it really takes for a word to make it onto the WOTY shortlist.