The American Dialect Society (via SG) each year votes on which words best “reflect the concerns and preoccupations of the year gone by.”

2002’s winner: Weapons of Mass Destruction (W.M.D.).

Other categories of distinction include:

Most Likely to Succeed: Blog

Most Useful: Google

Most Creative: Iraqnophobia

Most Outrageous: Neuticles

Most Euphemistic: Regime change

For those who are interested, they also have lists for 1990 – 2001.