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Oxford Dictionaries name toxic as the word of 2018

Posted at 4:27 PM, Nov 19, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-19 16:56:31-05

Oxford Dictionaries has released 2018's word of the year. It's toxic.

People in South Florida and the Treasure Coast have heard that word quite often this year.

Jenny Pawlowsky and Kim Streiber created the Toxic 18 Facebook page in June as a way to document the algae crisis.

"Putting pressure on the politicians," said Pawlowsky.

They have been reflecting on their progress and Oxford naming it the word of the year.

"Coincidentally. Definitely," said Streiber. "There's a level of awareness that we're raising maybe."

Algae is also in the top ten of words habitually used with toxic.

"Toxic and algae have come together a lot," said Mark Perry with Florida's Oceanographic Society.

He says that's both a good and bad thing.

"Awareness of toxic algae does bring more attention to the problem, but of course it's bad to have toxic algae anywhere," said Perry.