The Words of the Week - Mar. 28
Dictionary lookups from politics and government
‘Oligarchy’
Lookups for oligarchy have been high for months, and this week the word was often in the top spot.
… Mr. [Bernie] Sanders and Ms. [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez spent three days last week on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour through Arizona, Nevada and Colorado. In Denver, they drew 34,000 people, what Sanders aides said was the largest crowd of his career.
—Reid J. Epstein and Katie Glueck, The New York Times, 24 Mar. 2025
Oligarchy, which we define as “a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes,” is one of numerous English words for a type of rule or government. Some of these words, such as plutocracy, have an exceedingly similar meaning; both plutocracy and oligarchy may be used to refer to rule by an economic elite, but oligarchy often has the additional connotation of corruption.
‘Annexation’
Annexation saw higher than usual lookups this week.
New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Conservative opponent said U.S. President Donald Trump must respect Canada’s sovereignty as they kicked off their election campaigns Sunday against the backdrop of a trade war and Trump’s annexation threats.
—Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede criticized an upcoming trip to the Danish territory by Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance, and other senior U.S. officials as a “provocation” and “highly aggressive.” … Trump has made U.S. annexation of Greenland a major talking point since taking office for a second time.
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We define the relevant sense of annexation as “the act of annexing something [incorporating an additional geographic area within the domain of a country, state, etc.] or the state of being annexed.”
‘Verisimilitude’
Verisimilitude spiked in lookups following the publication of an article detailing how members of the Trump administration, including the Secretary of Defense, accidentally included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic in texts describing war plans in Yemen using the app Signal.
The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing. … After reading this chain, I recognized that this conversation possessed a high degree of verisimilitude. The texts, in their word choice and arguments, sounded as if they were written by the people who purportedly sent them, or by a particularly adept AI text generator. I was still concerned that this could be a disinformation operation, or a simulation of some sort. And I remained mystified that no one in the group seemed to have noticed my presence. But if it was a hoax, the quality of mimicry and the level of foreign-policy insight were impressive.
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The adjective verisimilar describes something that is probable or has the appearance of truth. Verisimilitude can refer either to the quality or state of being verisimilar, or to something that is verisimilar.
‘Outrageous’
Outrageous was also trending this week, possibly in connection to the fallout surrounding the aforementioned national security leak.
Donald Trump’s military plans were revealed to a journalist after he was accidentally added to a top-secret chat on airstrikes in Yemen. … Yesterday Mr Trump told reporters he knew nothing about the breach, adding: ‘You're telling me about it for the first time.’ Democratic congressman Chris Deluzio said: ‘This is an outrageous national security breach and heads should roll.’
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We define the pertinent sense of outrageous as “going beyond all standards of what is right or decent.” Outrageous can also be used to mean “deficient in propriety or good taste” (as in “outrageous language/manners”), “exceeding the limits of what is usual” (as in “outrageous prices”), “not conventional or matter-of-fact” (as in “outrageous costumes”) or “violent, unrestrained” (as in “outrageous behavior”).
‘Doge’
Our entry for doge was a top lookup again this week.
The best-known member of Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters.
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We define doge as “the chief magistrate in the republics of Venice and Genoa.” Doge is also used as slang, as an intentional misspelling of dog in an Internet meme involving a picture of a Shiba Inu dog captioned with humorously ungrammatical phrases. The word can also refer to a cryptocurrency, or to the aforementioned ‘government efficiency’ task force.
Word Worth Knowing: ‘Tartuffery’
Tartuffe is the name of the titular character of Molière’s five-act comedic play Tartuffe. Tartuffe is a sanctimonious scoundrel who, professing extreme piety, is taken into the household of Orgon, a wealthy man. Under the guise of ministering to the family’s spiritual and moral needs, he almost destroys Orgon’s family. Elmire, Orgon’s wife, sees through Tartuffe’s wicked hypocrisy and exposes him. While not especially common, tartuffery is a handy word to reach for when you need to refer to hypocrisy—in other words the character or behavior of a Tartuffe.
