4 November 2005
Merriam Webster reports that the word most often looked up in its online dictionary during the month of September was refugee. Two other Katrina-related words made the top twenty, levee, coming in at number four and hurricane at eleven.
Other words in the top twenty indicate that school is back in session, with students looking up words for assignments. Numbers two and three were effect and affect. Metaphor and irony come in at five and six. Paradigm and rhetoric also make the list.
