2009 will go down as the year Twitter dominated everything. It went from being used by mostly computer geeks and young adults to politians, news stations, and pretty much anyone and everyone. Yep, the fail whale appeared quite a few times while Twitter worked to handle the new influx of users. Appropriately, Twitter has been named Top Word of 2009 by the Global Language Monitor in its annual global survey of the English language.

Following Twitter on the list of the top words of the year were: Obama, H1N1, Stimulus, Vampire. Wow. What a great summary of the year. Twitter boomed, Obama took office, H1N1 became a global pandemic, various government stimulus programs made headlines and caused controversy, and vampires took over pop culture with "Twilight" and "True Blood." Rounding out the top ten from No. 6 to No. 10 were 2.0, Deficit, Hadron, Healthcare, and Transparency.

Paul JJ Payack, President of the Global Language Monitor said:

“In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a pandemic, the after effects of a financial tsunami and the death of a revered pop icon, the word Twitter stands above all the other words. Twitter represents a new form of social interaction, where all communication is reduced to 140 characters. Being limited to strict formats did wonders for the sonnet and haiku. One wonders where this highly impractical word-limit will lead as the future unfolds.”

In addition to the top words, GLM also published lists of the top phrases and name. Since this is the final year of the first decade of the new millenium, GLM also came up with a list of the top words of the decade, which included: Global Warming, 9/11, Obama, Bailout, Evacuee, Derivative, Google, Surge, Chinglish, and Tsunami. "Climate Change" was the top phrase of the decade and "Heroes" was the top name of the decade.

The analysis of English worldwide was completed in late November using GLM's Predictive Quantities Indicator, which is a proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet. It now also includes blogs and social media. Words are tracked in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets. Long-term are factored in, as well as short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.

You can view the top words, phrases and names of 2009 and the decade, along with explanations, here:

The Top Words of 2009

Phrase Comments

1. Twitter — The ability to encapsulate human thought in 140 characters

2. Obama — The word stem transforms into scores of new words like ObamaCare

3. H1N1 — The formal (and politically correct) name for Swine Flu

4. Stimulus — The $800 billion aid package meant to help mend the US economy

5. Vampire — Vampires are very much en vogue, now the symbol of unrequited love

6. 2.0 — The 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of everything

7. Deficit — Lessons from history are dire warnings here

8. Hadron — Ephemeral particles subject to collision in the Large Hadron Collider

9. Healthcare — The direction of which is the subject of intense debate in the US

10. Transparency — Elusive goal for which many 21st c. governments are striving

11. Outrage — In response to large bonuses handed out to ‘bailed-out’ companies

12. Bonus — The incentive pay packages that came to symbolize greed and excess

13. Unemployed — And underemployed amount to close to 20% of US workforce

14. Foreclosure — Forced eviction for not keeping up with the mortgage payments

15. Cartel — In Mexico, at the center of the battle over drug trafficking

The Top Phrases of 2009

Phrase Comments

1. King of Pop –Elvis was ‘The King;’ MJ had to settle for ‘King of Pop’

2. Obama-mania — One of the scores of words from the Obama-word stem

3. Climate Change — Considered politically neutral compared to global warming

4. Swine Flu — Popular name for the illness caused by the H1N1 virus

5. Too Large to Fail — Institutions that are deemed necessary for financial stability

6. Cloud Computing — Using the Internet for a variety of computer services

7. Public Option — The ability to buy health insurance from a government entity

8. Jai Ho! — A Hindi shout of joy or accomplishment

9. Mayan Calendar — Consists of various ‘cycles,’ one of which ends on 12/21/2012

10. God Particle — The hadron, believed to hold the secrets of the Big Bang

The Top Names of 2009

Name Comments

1. Barack Obama — It was Obama’s year, though MJ nearly eclipsed in the end

2. Michael Jackson — Eclipses Obama on internet though lags in traditional media

3. Mobama — Mrs. Obama, sometimes as a fashion Icon

4. Large Hadron Collider — The Trillion dollar ‘aton smasher’ buried outside Geneva

5. Neda Agha Sultan — Iranian woman killed in the post-election demonstrations

6. Nancy Pelosi –The Democratic Speaker of the US House

7. M. Ahmadinejad — The president of Iran, once again

8. Hamid Karzai — The winner of Afghanistan’s disputed election

9. Rahm Emmanuel — Bringing ‘Chicago-style politics’ to the Administration

10. Sonia Sotomayor — The first Hispanic woman on the US Supreme Court

The Top Words of the Decade from 2000 – 2009

Word (Year) Comments

1. Global Warming (2000) Rated highly from Day One of the decade

2. 9/11 (2001) Another inauspicious start to the decade

3. Obama- (2008 )The US President’s name as a ‘root’ word or ‘word stem’

4. Bailout (2008) The Bank Bailout was but Act One of the crisis

5. Evacuee/refugee (2005) After Katrina, refugees became evacuees

6. Derivative (2007) Financial instrument or analytical tool that engendered the Meltdown

7. Google (2007) Founders misspelled actual word ‘googol’

8. Surge (2007) The strategy that effectively ended the Iraq War

9. Chinglish (2005) The Chinese-English Hybrid language growing larger as Chinese influence expands

10. Tsunami (2004) Southeast Asian Tsunami took 250,000 lives

11. H1N1 (2009) More commonly known as Swine Flu

12. Subprime ( 2007) Subprime mortgages were another bubble to burst

13. dot.com (2000) The Dot.com bubble engendered no lifelines, no bailouts

14. Y2K ( 2000) The Year 2000: all computers would turn to pumpkins at the strike of midnight

15. Misunderestimate (2002) One of the first and most enduring of Bushisms

16. Chad ( 2000) Those Florida voter punch card fragments that the presidency would turn aupon

17. Twitter (2008 ) A quarter of a billion references on Google

18. WMD (2002) Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction

19. Blog (2003) First called ‘web logs’ which contracted into blogs

20. Texting (2004) Sending 140 character text messages over cell phones

21. Slumdog (2008) Child inhabitants of Mumba’s slums

22. Sustainable (2006) The key to ‘Green’ living where natural resources are never depleted

23. Brokeback (2004) New term for ‘gay’ from he Hollywood film ‘Brokeback Mountain’

24. Quagmire (2004) Would Iraq War end up like Vietnam, another ‘quagmire’?

25. Truthiness (2006) Steven Colbert’s addition to the language appears to be a keeper

Also worth noting: ’Embedded’ (2003) to embed reporters with US Troops

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The Top Phrases of the Decade from 2000 – 2009

Word (Year) Comments

1. Climate Change (2000) Green words in every form dominant the decade

2. Financial Tsunami (2008) One quarter of the world’s wealth vanishes seemingly overnight

3. Ground Zero (2001) Site of 9/11terrorist attack in New York City

4. War on Terror (2001) Bush administration’s response to 9/11

5. Weapons of Mass Destruction (2003) Bush’s WMDs never found in Iraq or the Syrian desert

6. Swine Flu (2008) H1N1, please, so as not to offend the pork industry or religious sensitivities!

7. “Let’s Roll!” (2001) Todd Beamer’s last words before Flight 93 crashed into the PA countryside

8. Red State/Blue State (2004) Republican or Democratic control of states

9. Carbon footprint (2007) How much CO² does an activity produce?

10. Shock-and-awe (2003) Initial strategy of Iraq War

11. Ponzi Scheme (2009) Madoff’s strategy reaped billions & heartache

12. Category Four (2005) Force of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans’ seawalls and levies

13. King of Pop (2000) Elvis was the King, MJ the King (of Pop)

14. “Stay the Course” (2004) Dubya’s off-stated guidance for Iraq War

15. “Yes, we can!” (2008) Obama’s winning campaign slogan

16. “Jai Ho!” (2008) Shout of joy from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’

17. “Out of the Mainstream” (2003) Complaint about any opposition’s political platform

18. Cloud computing (2007) Using the Internet as a large computational device

19. Threat Fatigue (2004) One too many terrorist threat alerts

20. Same-sex marriage (2003) Marriage of gay couples

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The Top Names of the Decade from 2000 – 2009

Name (Year) Comment

1. Hereos (2001) Emergency responders who rushed into the Towers

2. bin Laden (2001) His Capture still top of mind for US Military

3. Ground Zero (2001) NY Times still will not capitalize the site as a formal name

4. Dubya (2000) George W. Bush, US President No. 43

5. The Clintons (Hillary & Bill) (2000) Looming on political landscape, though not as large

6. John Paul II (2000) Largest funeral in TV history attested to power

7. Obama (2008) Making an impact as the decade ends

8. Taliban (2000) Still the source of Afghan insurgency

9. Katrina (2004) Hurricane whose destruction of New Orleans is seared into minds around globe

10. Tiger Woods (2000) Top golfer earned about $1 Billion this decade

11. iPhone (2007) First product on this list

12. Paul Hewson (Bono) (2000) U2 Front man, NY Times Columnist, catalyst for African relief

13. Michael Jackson (2000) The King of Pop

14. Al Gore (2000) Nobel Prize winner, US Vice President, Climate Change purveyor

15. Saddham Hussein (2000) Iraqi dictator captured while hiding in a ‘spider hole’

16. Enron (2001) Seems like another era since this giant fell

17. Bollywood (2000) Mumbai’s answer to Hollywood

18. Facebook (2007) Another ubiquitous software product

19. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005) Iranian president since 2005

20. Vladimir Putin (2000) Russian leader since 2000