Cambridge Dictionaries Online - Cambridge University Press

Top 50 words 2002

No real surprise about the top word of 2002 - serendipity consistently topped our Top 20 tables for the early part of the year. It is perhaps more of a surprise that the top 4 remains exactly the same as last year, and that there are only twelve new entries, the highest of which is commit. The biggest riser is comply, up from 37 to 13. In total, there were more than 23 million searches on Cambridge Dictionaries Online in 2002, making it by far our most successful year.

1	serendipity (1)	26	endeavour (49)
2	idiom (2)	27	love (18)
3	paradigm (3)	28	metaphor (29)
4	ubiquitous (4)	29	foray (12)
5	effect (7)	30	procure (20)
6	advice (14)	31	fob (16)
7	liaise (13)	32	pertain to (32)
8	enquire (19)	33	diverse (38)
9	pragmatic (6)	34	ambiguous (26)
10	affect (11)	35	benefit (-)
11	analyse (15)	36	mitigate (41)
12	jingoism (9)	37	criterion (48)
13	comply (37)	38	elude (-)
14	regard (23)	39	intend (-)
15	foible (10)	40	implement (-)
16	inform (21)	41	aesthetic (30)
17	appreciate (40)	42	emphasize (-)
18	assess (31)	43	ethic (43)
19	assert (25)	44	sarcasm (-)
20	irony (22)	45	relate (-)
21	commit (-)	46	empathy (39)
22	allege (46)	47	propose (-)
23	acquire (24)	48	use (-)
24	cynic (36)	49	leverage (-)
25	provide (-)	50	rhetoric (42)
This list shows the 50 entries that were looked at most frequently on Cambridge Dictionaries Online in the year 2002. The list had to be edited slightly for prurient content. The numbers in brackets indicate the position of that word in 2001's top 50.