'Demure' is Dictionary.com's 2024 Word of the Year Even Though Meme Died Months Ago

Dictionary.com has selected its 2024 word of the year.

On Monday, the online dictionary platform revealed it had chosen “demure,” a word that went viral in August when TikToker Jools Lebron popularized it. The influencer used the word in phrases like “very demure, very mindful,” and paired demure with “cutesy” and “considerate.” Lebron would use the word situationally as well; one of her examples was, “how to be demure and respectful at the workplace.”

Demure beat out several other contenders, including Brainrot, Brat, Extreme Weather, Midwest Nice, and Weird, which were included on Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year shortlist.

For the website, demure was a no-brainer after it had 200 times more searches on Dictionary.com and a 1200 percent boost in usage in digital media between January and September this year.

According to the platform, demure is “characterized by shyness and modesty; reserved.” But once Lebron breathed new life into the word, being demure applied to any situation, whether driving, eating, or putting on makeup. Lebron flipped its meaning too, allowing people to instead express a “quiet confidence,” per Dictionary.com’s statement to Time.

Last year, the online dictionary chose “hallucinate” for its word of the year, while Merriam-Webster chose “authentic.”