Whether popular, corporate or entitled, ‘culture’ was named word of the year by US dictionary Merriam-Webster as a flexible catch-all that can easily identify a subject, idea or issue.

Merriam-Webster defines culture as the beliefs, customs and arts of a ‘society, group, place or time’. The word was buoyed by media coverage about ‘celebrity culture’, ‘company culture’ and ‘rape culture’ dominating media and public conversations, the dictionary publisher said. It was chosen for its large amount of online look-ups and significant increase in look-ups from last year, Merriam-Webster said. The publisher said the word usually spikes in fall when students return to school.

Culture beat out ‘nostalgia’, ‘insidious’ and ‘legacy’ for word of the year, as all received significant media references in relation to politics, film, sports and the deadly Ebola virus outbreak.

British rival, the Oxford English Dictionary, chose ‘vape’ – the act of drawing on an electronic cigarette – as its word of 2014. The dictionary tends to choose neologisms that gain mass usage.

Last year, Merriam-Webster’s word of the year was ‘science’.