“Vaccine” topped the list of ten candidate words which were voted for online throughout the month of December last year. The reason for choosing the word was described as being because: "Developed in record time, vaccines have become the greatest weapon against Covid-19 and Portugal is one of the world leaders in its inoculation", according to Porto Editora (PE).

“Covid-19 vaccination marked the year 2021, not only because of the success of the process that placed Portugal at the top of the world, but also because it allowed for a reduction in the number of victims of the disease and the alleviation of the restrictions placed on them”, says the EP.

In second place in the word of the year vote was "resilience", with 30.5 percent of the votes, followed by "telework", which received 9.2 percent of the votes.

The words that then followed were “bazooka”, “cryptocurrency” and “podcast”, respectively with 6.5 percent, 2.9 percent and 1.9 percent. In 7th place was “budget” (1.4 percent), followed by “mobility” (0.9 percent), “blackout” (0.7 percent) and “moratorium” (0.6 percent).

For the editorial group, the choice of “The Word of the Year” reflects “the daily life of our society each year; facts, habits, events, trends and collective concerns”.

"Vaccine" succeeds "saudade", which was chosen in 2020.