"Pandemic" is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year

For the record: Runners up for word of the year based on lookup surges related to the pandemic were "coronavirus," "quarantine" and "asymptomatic," per AP.

• Non-virus considerations that saw spikes included "defund," in relation to the "defund the police" campaign, "antebellum" after country group Lady A dropped the word from their name because of its association with pre-Civil War slavery and "mamba," following the January death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant — who was known as the "Black Mamba."

Worth noting: The WHO declared on Feb. 11 "a new name" for the coronavirus: "COVID-19." Merriam-Webster included the word plus information related to it on its site 34 days later.

• "That's the shortest period of time we’ve ever seen a word go from coinage to entry," Sokolowski told AP.

Flashback: Merriam-Webster's 2019 word of the year: "They"

Editor's note: This article has been updated with details of words that were runners up and on the COVID-19 entry.