Oxford names 'vape' 2014 Word of the Year

The Oxford Dictionaries named 'vape' 2014's Word of the Year.

Oxford defines the verb as 'to inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device.' It was added to the dictionary in August. Vape can also be used as a noun for the e-cigarette and for the act of inhaling itself.

'You are thirty times more likely to come across the word vape than you were two years ago, and usage has more than doubled in the past year,' Oxford explained on the OxfordWords blog announcing the decision.

Runners up included:

Budtender: n. a person whose job is to serve customers in a cannabis dispensary or shop.

'Budtender' was one of the contenders for Oxford's 2014 Word of the Year.(Photo: David McNew, Getty Images)

Contactless: adj. relating to or involving technologies that allow a smart card, mobile phone, etc. to contact wirelessly to an electronic reader, typically in order to make a payment.

The word 'contactless' was considered by Oxford for the 2014 Word of the Year.(Photo: Eric Risberg, AP)

Indyref: n. an abbreviation of 'independence referendum', in reference to the referendum on Scottish independence, held in Scotland on 18 September 2014, in which voters were asked to answer yes or no to the question 'Should Scotland be an independent country?'

Oxford considered selecting 'Indyref' for 2014's Word of the Year.(Photo: LEON NEAL, AFP/Getty Images)

Follow @lagrisham on Twitter More:

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1qS1qI7