Demure,” a word that went viral over the summer, has been named Dictionary.com’s 2024 word of the year –– beating out other contenders like “brainrot,” “brat,” and “weird.”

This may have been the year of "Brat summer," but by August another buzzworthy phrase had usurped it in the pop culture lexicon.

The world’s leading digital dictionary has named “demure” its Word of the Year — a very mindful choice that came after lexicographers analyzed a massive amount of data to determine what word would best capture the cultural zeitgeist of 2024.