Austerity

"Austerity" tops the list of Merriam-Webster's top 10 words of the year.  The renowned dictionary defines austerity as an "enforced or extreme economy" and says lookups for the word peaked dramatically during the year because of global economic conditions and the debt crises in Europe, especially during and after the financial troubles in Greece.

Some other words making this year's list include moratorium, socialism, dissident, and doppelganger.