Honestly, are we even surprised at this point?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary has officially settled on a word that sums up 2021. And it's: "vaccine."

With last year's Word of the Year being "pandemic," we're not surprised that this year's word was also relevant to the coronavirus pandemic.

"This was a word that was extremely high in our data every single day in 2021," Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor-at-large, told The Associated Press. "It really represents two different stories. One is the science story, which is this remarkable speed with which the vaccines were developed. But there's also the debates regarding policy, politics and political affiliation. It's one word that carries these two huge stories."

According to Merriam-Webster, "vaccine" is described as "a preparation that is administered (as by injection) to stimulate the body's immune response against a specific infectious agent or disease."

At Merriam-Webster, searches for "vaccine" increased 601% over 2020, when the first U.S. shot was administered in New York in December.

"Vaccine's" first known use dates back to 1882, however, references pop up earlier in relation to fluid from cowpox pustules used in inoculations, said Sokolowski. It was borrowed from the New Latin "vaccina," which goes back to Latin's feminine "vaccinus," meaning "of or from a cow." The Latin for cow is "vacca," according to Merriam-Webster. 

The 2021 Word of the Year aligns with the Oxford English Dictionary, which named "vax" as its Word of the Year.

The runner-ups include: "insurrection," "perseverance," "woke," "nomad," "infrastructure," "cicada," "Murraya," "cisgender," "Guardian," and "Meta." 

What do you think of this year's Word of the Year? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.