‘Kindness’ voted OUP UK children’s word of the year

In the UK, Oxford University Press (OUP) has announced ‘kindness’ as the Oxford Children’s Word of the Year for 2024.

Each year, OUP’s ‘language experts and academic researchers’ announce a word of the year for children in the UK, to ‘track how the language used by children is evolving’. In 2024, after asking more than 6,000 children between the ages of 6 and 14 for their votes, the publisher shortlisted three words: ’kindness’, ‘artificial intelligence’, and ‘conflict’. In the final vote among these three words, 61% of children surveyed chose ‘kindness’. 

On OUP’s website, Andrea Quincey, product director – early years and primary, said: ‘It is so encouraging that kindness has been voted – by a considerable majority – as the Oxford Children’s Word of the Year for 2024. We know from previous years that young people are very conscious of the big issues that can divide us as a society and attuned to the important role which language can play in bringing people together. This choice suggests something more personal: an awareness of mental health issues and of the hidden challenges others may be facing. It tells us that empathy and tolerance and the language we use matter, and that kindness is not only a solution to so many problems but is something everyone and anyone can do to make a difference.’

More information, including the 2024 Oxford Children’s Word of the Year Report, is available on the Oxford University Press UK website.

Category: International news News