'NFT' Is Collins Dictionary's 2021 Word of the Year

NFT is a term that has conquered not only the world's collective psyche but also major dictionaries

NFT (short for non-fungible token) has been made the word of the year by Collins Dictionary.

According to Collins, the use of the abbreviation rose by more than 11,000% in 2021.

NFTs are digital receipts to prove that you own something so original versions of viral videos, memes, or tweets can be sold.

To round up the dictionary's list of 2021's biggest words, here are the most noteworthy:

• Climate anxiety: defines mental distress due to climate change

• Regencycore: a style of fashion derived from the 1810s, which is the era when the popular period drama "Bridgerton" is set

• Pingdemic: refers to a large-scale delivery of notifications to the general public courtesy of a contact tracing app

  Collins Dictionary @CollinsDict

  BREAKING NEWS The Collins Word of the Year is… NFT. Find out more about #CollinsWOTY 2021 and see the full list here: collinsdictionary.com/woty #wordoftheyear #CollinsDictionary #NFT

  

  November 24th 2021

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NFT was a winner beating out "metaverse," "double-vaxxed," and "cheugy." popularized by Gen-Z youngsters. For the uninitiated, "cheugy" refers to someone out-of-date who tries too hard to be "hip" or current,

Collins defines an NFT—short for non-fungible token—as "a unique digital certificate, registered in a blockchain, that is used to record ownership of an asset such as an artwork or a collectible." As a noun, the term describes "an asset whose ownership is recorded by means of a non-fungible token."

One thing's for sure: NFTs are going to be part of the conversation for a long time to come.