Vape: Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year

1. The Oxford Dictionaries named "vape" the word of 2014.
2. "Vape" was chosen due to its growing cultural significance, particularly as e-cigarettes and marijuana legalization spread.
3. Other words on Oxford Dictionaries' shortlist: bae, budtender, contactless, indyref, normcore, and slacktivism.

What is "vape"?

To vape is to inhale vapor from an e-cigarette or a similar device, such as a marijuana vape pen. It's widely seen as a safer way of consuming nicotine or marijuana than conventional smoking, since the vapor from e-cigarettes and vape pens doesn't contain as many toxic chemicals or carcinogens as smoke. Vaping has become much more popular in recent years due to the increasing production and marketing of e-cigarettes and, to a smaller extent, marijuana vape pens.

Will you join us?

Our biggest supporters are our readers — and we’re so grateful to everyone who has made a contribution during our September campaign. We’re less than 1,000 contributions away from reaching our goal for the month, which in turn will allow us to say yes more often when our incredible journalists come to us with questions they want to answer and projects they want to pursue. Will you make a contribution before the month ends and support our policy coverage through 2024 and beyond?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via