Oxford Dictionary Chooses GIF as Word of the Year

Oxford Dictionaries USA announced the word of the year on their website Tuesday in a fitting manner -- as a GIF. A GIF is a compressed file format for images that can be used to create simple, looping animations, beat out YOLO for first place.

"I think that the world is going toward a technological path, we're headed toward a web-based world and if they're adding computer extensions to the dictionary that gives light to a lot more things in the computer world," said junior Michael Cherin.

Some people are saying that YOLO should have won word of the year instead.

"GIF is a random thing to add to the dictionary in comparison to a lot more common words," said freshman Nelson Wu. "YOLO is so much more common. GIF, where would you use that?"

GIFs have immortalized everything from playfull kittens to U.S. gymnast McKayla Maroney's pouting face. The word stands for graphics interchange format and was created 25 years ago.

The word will be listed in the dictionary as GIF, verb: to create a GIF file of (an image or video sequence, especially relating to an event): he GIFed the highlights of the debate.