It’s ‘gaslighting.’ Honestly, no manipulation here

“Gaslighting,” behaviour that’s mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful, is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year.

Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740 per cent in 2022 over 2021. But there wasn’t a single event that drove significant spikes in curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year. The gaslighting was pervasive. “It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large. “It was a word looked up frequently every single day of the year.”

There were deepfakes and the dark web. There were deep states and fake news. And there was a whole lot of trolling.

Merriam-Webster’s top definition for gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person, usually over an extended period of time, that causes a victim to question themselves. Broadly, the dictionary defines the word thusly: “The act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.”

Gaslighting is a heinous tool frequently used by abusers in relationships — and by politicians and other newsmakers.