The most searched words in the online dictionary of the Romania language dexonline.ro reflect last year’s political and social events. The top searched words in 2017 were to repeal (a abroga) and pardon (amnistie), the online platform said.

Last year, the now repealed emergency ordinance OUG 13 attempted to pardon some categories of convicted criminals and bring changes the criminal laws. It gave rise to the biggest street protests Romania has seen in years.

Dexonline.ro is a platform transposing in an online version the most important Romanian language dictionaries. The platform is created and maintained by a group of volunteers.

This is not the first time when political events influence online searches. In 2015, when the Dacian Ciolos government came to power, the most searched word was technocrat (tehnocrat), a term used to describe the members of the government.

Other words that were searched last year, not for their definition but for their spelling, were to create (a crea) and dream (vis).

In previous years, very many searches were performed before the National Evaluation simulation and Baccalaureate exams. Last year, Dexonline.ro pranked the students performing the searches and temporarily changed the definitions of some words throughout the simulation.

editor@romania-insider.com