© 2026 KUNM
89.9 FM Live From The University Of New Mexico
Give Now
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
For listeners in Las Vegas, NM on KRRE 91.9, please note our tower sustain minor damage in recent storms. Engineers will be heading to the site shortly once roads become passable again. You can tune into KUNM on 89.9fm, 90.5fm or stream online or our app. We apologize for the disruption and will get the tower fixed and fully powered in a few days.

Picture This: Selfie Is 'Word Of The Year'

NPR | By Mark Memmott
Published November 19, 2013 at 7:10 AM MST
If old bloggers are doing it when they bike, then you know the word "selfie" has gone mainstream.
Mark Memmott
/
NPR
If old bloggers are doing it when they bike, then you know the word "selfie" has gone mainstream.

Oxford Dictionaries has decided that 2013's word of the year is selfie — and if you don't know what the word means, you may not be a somewhat self-absorbed type who likes to share photos you take of yourself. (Just kidding, selfie fans!)

According to the experts at Oxford, "the decision was unanimous ... with little if any argument. ... It seems like everyone who is anyone has posted a selfie somewhere on the Internet. If it is good enough for the Obamas or The Pope, then it is good enough for Word of the Year."

Selfie was chosen over others such as "binge watch," "showrooming" and "twerking." (We do have to thank the committee for not going with that last candidate, which allows us to go on at length again about Miley Cyrus.)

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott
Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
Click here to sign up today!