"Of the approximately 40 thousand Internet users who participated in this vote, 26.8 percent chose “Saudade”, a word so often associated with the soul of the Portuguese".

The votes for "Saudade" surpassed those for "covid-19" and "pandemic", placed in second and third place, respectively, according to Lusa News Agency.

Saudade is one of the most common words in Portuguese language romantic poetry and also in all contexts in general. That means a mixture of feelings of loss, lack, distance and love. The word comes from the Latin solitatem. It’s a word without any direct translation in the world and the most similar meaning is with the word “nostalgic”.

"Covid-19" was in second place, not too distant, with 24.4 percent, followed by "pandemic", with 17.03 percent, according to the publisher.

This was the 12th edition of the "Word of the Year" initiative, and the online voting took place from 1 to 31 December.

The list of words put up for voting was built based on "research carried out in the Portuguese Language Dictionary, at www.infopedia.pt, based on the observation and monitoring of the Portuguese language, carried out by Porto Editora", and in the suggestions made through the website www.palavradoano.pt, explains the editorial group.

The voting in Portugal took place at the same time as Angola and Mozambique, and was promoted by Plural Editores, from Grupo Porto Editora.