The two newest words to enter the Macquarie Dictionary Online have been revealed and both are likely to be regularly used throughout 2010. Scooping the award for Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of the Year 2009 - chosen by the Word of the Year Committee - was “shovel-ready”. The term refers to a building or infrastructure project which can be initiated immediately and so bring jobs to the economy. In a statement by Susan Butler, Editor of Macquarie Dictionary she commented: “The committee felt that this word was associated with one of the major preoccupations of 2009 - how to avoid a recession.”

Taking the honour of Word of the Year 2009 in the people’s choice category was “Tweet” - something that has certainly been much discussed in the past year. The popularity of Twitter - the online social networking site - has grown at a rapid rate and with it that growth has brought us a whole new vocabulary.

We want to hear from you about the words and phrases that are slowly infiltrating their way into offices across Australia, for example “stressurised” (a mix of stress and pressure), “I think someone needs to take a bite of the reality sandwich” (someone needs to think more practically) and “Let’s run that idea up the flagpole and see if it flies (trying out an idea) - get in touch with your own suggestions.