site.btaTop 3 Most Popular Words of 2023 in Bulgaria: AI, Assemblage, Time Shelter

The most popular word of 2023 in Bulgaria is "artificial intelligence" with 45%, followed by "assemblage" with 37% [the named used for the ruling majority] and "time shelter" with 35% [the title of an award-winning book by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov]. These are the findings of the annual survey by the Kak se pishe? literacy platform, which took place for the third year in a row and gave people the opportunity to vote for the most significant words and expressions for Bulgaria in 2023.

The other words in the top ten are "war", "Schengen", "disassembly", "rotation" [in relation to the planned rotation in the Government], "Booker" [one of the prizes won by "Time Shelter"], "Euro-Atlantician", and PISA, the organizers said. 

In 2022, the most popular words were "war", "inflation", "Ukraine", and "elections".

The survey also included a ranking of the most used words and expressions by Bulgarian media. The analysis, based on 10.6 million publications in 9,730 online news sources, shows that the twenty most frequent words last year were "Bulgaria", "Russia", "Ukraine", "Europe", "USA", "child", "aid", "war", "politics", "minister", "price", "support", "president", "family", "government", "party", "elections", "governance", "parliament", and "committee". 

The survey's organizers note that the use of "child" has increased significantly since 2022. The words "gas", "energy", and "economy" have dropped out of the top 20 to be replaced by "family", "elections", and "commission". The use of the most popular 20 words having dropped notably from a year earlier indicates a diversification of the leading topics in the media.

For the first time, the survey included a ranking of the individuals most frequently mentioned by Bulgarian media. In first place is GERB leader Boyko Borissov, followed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, former prosecutor general Ivan Geshev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Finance Minister and Continue the Change co-leader Assen Vassilev, US President Joe Biden, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel, former US president Donald Trump, MRF floor leader Delyan Peevski, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, US billionaire Elon Musk, Defence Minister Todor Tagarev, Portuguese football player Cristiano Ronaldo, murdered Bulgarian businessman Alexey Petrov, Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Korneliya Ninova, and former caretaker interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev.

The organizers note that Borissov has went up in popularity in the media compared to previous years. He topped the ranking in 2021, while in 2022 he was in fourth place.