大象传媒

This year's 500 Words Final will take place on the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Radio 2 on Friday 12th June.

'Coronavirus' is the Oxford Children’s Word of the Year, appearing for the first time in this year’s stories - a total of 459 times. The spread of coronavirus inspired children to try and find a cure for the disease in their stories, with mentions of unicorns, Smurfs, drones and magic potions as possible aides in the fight against Covid-19.

Previous words of the year have been Brexit (2019), plastic (2018), Trump (2017) and refugee (2016), reflecting the influence of global affairs on children’s creativity.

The Australian bushfires, climate change and Greta Thunberg also feature heavily in this year’s stories. Mentions of climate change increased by 839%; mentions of Greta Thunberg increased by 1,755% and mentions of bushfires increased by 2,141%. Meanwhile, koalas, kangaroos and wombats were mentioned 3,333 times this year in total.

Some other stats: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was the longest word used in 2020 stories; Donald Trump topped the list of famous people (with 1,049 mentions), YouTube was the most mentioned social media site and TikTok saw a massive 1,725% increase in mentions since 2019.

See the infographics below to find out more about the stories from this year's 500 Words.

For more facts, infographics and analysis visit the , where the full Oxford Children’s Corpus Summary Report is available to download.