'Podcast' Is Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year

According to this press release, “podcast” is the New Oxford American Dictionary's word of the year for 2005!

“Only a year ago, podcasting was an arcane activity, the domain of a few techies and self-admitted 'geeks.' Now you can hear everything from NASCAR coverage to NPR's All Things Considered in downloadable audio files called 'podcasts.' Thousands of podcasts are available at the iTunes Music Store, and websites such as iPodder.com and Podcast.net track thousands more. That's why the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have selected 'podcast' as the Word of the Year for 2005. Podcast, defined as ”a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player,“ will be added to the next online update of the New Oxford American Dictionary, due in early 2006.”

“Podcast” beat out sudoku (!), bird flu and others. The publishers of the Oxford Dictionary, by the way, have a blog but no podcast.