Top Ten Merriam-Webster word searches of 2004:
1. blog
2. incumbent
3. electoral
4. insurgent
5. hurricane
6. cicada
7. peloton
8. partisan
9. sovereignty
10. defenestration
As the story points out, eight of the words are related to news events.
I’m not surprised by most of the words on the list. But hurricane? People haven’t figured those out yet?