The Language Monitor has come up with the most commonly used words of the decade as part of their annual survey of the English language. The survey uses a mathematical formula to measure the popularity of word use both online and in print media.
The top word of the decade was "Global Warming" indicating concern and discussion about the environment was a strong and ongoing conversation throughout the decade.
Sustainable, another popular green term, came into the language strongly in 2006 and made the list at 22.
The full list is below:
The Top 25 Words of the Decade from 2000 - 2009
1. Global Warming (2000)
2. 9/11 (2001)
3. Obama (2008)
4. Bailout (2008)
5. Evacuee/refugee (2005): (Survivors of Katrina who had to be rescued)
6. Derivative (2007)
7. Google (2007)
8. Surge (2007)
9. Chinglish (2005)
10. Tsunami (2004)
11. H1N1 (2009)
12. Subprime ( 2007)
13. dot.com (2000)
14. Y2K ( 2000)
15. Misunderestimate (2002)
16. Chad ( 2000): (a la "Hanging Chad" in Florida after the Bush vs. Gore election)
17. Twitter (2008 )
18. WMD (2002) (Weapons of Mass Destruction)
19. Blog (2003)
20. Texting (2004)
21. Slumdog (2008) (Popularized by Slumdog Millionaire)
22. Sustainable (2006)
23. Brokeback (2004) (From Brokeback Mountain)
24. Quagmire (2004) (Referring to the Iraq War)
25. Truthiness (2006) (A contribution from Stephen Colbert)