眼下新冠肺炎病毒依旧在全球肆虐，疫情有关词频频入选各大词典的年度词语，《韦氏词典》也不例外。该词典选出的2021年度词语是从去年火到今年的“疫苗”（vaccine）。
A nurse prepares a dose of the of coronavirus disease vaccine during the vaccination campaign at the Ridge Hospital in Accra, Ghana, March 2, 2021. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko
"Vaccine" is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. The word was selected based on lookup data, notable spikes, and year-over-year increases in searches.
《韦氏词典》的年度词语是“疫苗”。该词是基于查看数据、访问量峰值和同比搜索增加量选出的。
"This is a word that has kind of two parallel but intersecting stories: one is a medical story, and one is a political story or a cultural story," said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor-at-large.
《韦氏词典》的特约编辑彼得·索科洛夫斯基说：“这个词有两个平行又相交的故事，一个是医学上的，还有一个是政治或文化上的。”
On the site, lookups for "vaccine" shot up 601% over 2020, especially toward the latter part of the year when the first US shot was administered in December. There was a 1,048% increase in site lookups this year compared to 2019.
《韦氏词典》网站上“疫苗”一词的查看量在2020年暴涨了601%，下半年搜索热度更高，特别是去年12月美国接种第一剂疫苗之时。2021年“疫苗”一词的查看量比2019年增加了1048%。
And searches have remained stable through late fall, especially with talk about the Omicron variant and the efficacy of vaccines in sTOPping it.
而且该词搜索热度一直到秋末都居高不下，特别是在奥密克戎毒株引发有关疫苗有效性的讨论之后。
《韦氏词典》其他年度词语候选
One notable runner-up word was "insurrection," searches for which increased by 61,000% on January 7, the day after the January 6 siege on the US Capitol.
一个值得注意的候选年度词语是“暴动”，因为美国国会大厦在1月6日遭遇袭击，该词在1月7日的搜索热度疯涨61000%。
Another runner-up was "perseverance," the name of NASA's latest Mars rover, which landed February 18. The name was chosen by a seventh-grader in Virginia who participated in an essay contest organized by NASA.
另一个要紧的候选年度词语是“毅力”，是美国宇航局最新的火星探测器的名字。“毅力号”于2月18日登陆火星。这个名字是美国宇航局通过作文比赛公开寻求名字时选中的，提交这个名字的是弗吉尼亚州的一名初一学生。
Other words in Merriam-Webster’s Top 10 include Cicada , guardian , meta , cisgender and woke .
入选《韦氏词典》候选年度词语前十名的还包含：蝉（因大举入侵美国而入选）、保卫者（美国棒球队克里夫兰印地安人更名为克里夫兰保卫者）、元（脸书母公司高端大气上档次的新名字）、顺性别者（自我性别认定和出生时的生理性别相同的人）和警醒（满脑子都是政治正确性）。
英文来源：美国有线电视新闻网、泰晤士报
翻译&编辑：丹妮