Merriam Webster chose this word as the 'Word of the Year 2022'

Gaslighting usually refers to psychological manipulation of a person over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts.

The word "gaslighting", which means manipulating the mind, being grossly deceptive, or downright deceitful, has become Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2022. In 2022, searches for the term increased by 1,740% on merriamwebster.com from a year earlier.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster, said it's a word that has grown so rapidly in the English language, especially in the past four years.

"The word really came as a surprise to me and to many of us. It was a word that was seen every day of the year," Sokolowski told the AP.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, gaslighting refers to the psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time in a way that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and usually But leads to confusion, lack of self-confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one's emotional or mental stability, and dependence on the offender.

It is a nefarious tool often used by abusers in relationships, and by politicians or other news makers. The American company said the first known use of 'gaslighting' was in 1961.

Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site, chooses its word of the year based entirely on data, the AP reported, adding that Sokolowski and his team weeded out evergreen words that typically gauge Used to see which word got a significant bump the year before.

"There's this implication of a deliberate deception. And once someone becomes aware of that deception, it's not just an outright lie, like, you know, I didn't eat the cookies in the cookie jar. It's something like that has a slightly more devious quality. It's probably an idea of ​​strategy or long-term planning," Sokolovsky said.

The term was also used by mental health practitioners to clinically describe a form of coercive control over a long period of time in abusive relationships.