The top most popular word in 2014 is now revealed. But the irony is that it is not even a word. According to recent reports, heart emoji has topped the list and emerged as most commonly used word in English language.

The results are based on an extensive study of the internet done by Global Language Monitor. This is for the first time an ideograph has topped the charts as the most popular word. There are around 722 recognized emoji characters which portray an emotion, state of mind or even a place. It is reported by Daily Mail that another 250 will be added by next year.

The heart emoji has bagged the top slot due to its extensive usage in social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and in 2,50,000 other blogs, tabloids and news outlets. The research by GLM showed that heart and love emoji or emoticon and its variations appears almost billions of times a day around the world, breaking the barriers of language and culture.

GLM does extensive research every year by analysing social media, blogs, and almost every print and electronic publications to find out the year's most popular word. Business Insider has reported that to qualify for the list a word had to be used at least 25,000 times globally. Their usage is also taken under consideration as it should not be limited to a particular region and has to be used across different medium globally.Paul JJ Payack, the founder of GLM has also declared to Business Insider last year that they also keep in mind the words which have special impact on society and language.

Heart emoji is followed by another sign 'hashtag' at second place and vape at third spot. Vape is a word which was used for smoking an electronic or e-cigarette. Blood-moon, nano and photobomb also found a place in the top 10 list of the year's most popular words.

'Hands Up, Don't shoot' is the top most phrase of 2014 which emerged as a popular slogan after the shooting of an unarmed suspect in the U.S. 'Cosmic inflation', 'global warming' and 'climate change' also found a place in the Top 5 phrases of 2014.

Ebola emerged as the top name of 2014 after its current outbreak in Africa which has claimed till date 5000 lives became the household name and a regular part of newspaper, tabloids and webloids.

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