Dictionary Merriam-Webster has named "surreal" as its word of the year. 

 

韦氏词典将“超现实”定为2016年度词汇。

 

The lexicographer¹ selected surreal - which means "unbelievable, fantastic" - after spikes³ in searches following terrorist attacks and the US election. 

 

The attacks in Brussels, the Bastille Day massacre⁴ in Nice and the attempted coup⁵ in Turkey all saw an increase in how often people searched for the word. 

 

But the single biggest spike² in look-ups came the day after Donald Trump's election, said Merriam-Webster. 

 

"It just seems like one of those years," said Peter Sokolowski, the dictionary's editor at large. 

 

"Surreal" is also defined as meaning "marked by the intense irrational⁶ reality of a dream", according to Merriam Webster. 

 

It joins Oxford's "post-truth" and Dictionary.com's "xenophobia" as the top word of 2016. 

 

There were also smaller jumps in searches for the word after the death of Prince in April and the June shootings at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. 

 

"Surreal" first emerged around 1924, when a group of European poets, artists and filmmakers founded the Surrealism movement, which focused on accessing the truths of the unconscious mind by breaking down rational thought.

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