What's the Word? W00t!

Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2007: w00t.

That's w-zero-zero-t.

The hybrid of letters and numbers is used by online gamers as an exclamation of happiness or triumph.

John Morse, Merriam-Webster's president, called "w00t" an ideal choice because it blends whimsy and new technology.

"It shows a really interesting thing that's going on in language. It's a term that's arrived only because we're now communicating electronically with each other," Morse said.

Other words in the running for word of the year: The use of "facebook" as a verb to signify using the Web site by that name; nuanced terms such as "quixotic," "hypocrite" and "conundrum"; and "blamestorm," a meeting in which mistakes are aired, fingers are pointed and much discomfort is had by all.