The most frequent top-spot holder of the past twelve months, google, slipped to the No. 6 spot. Could the public's fascination with google being in the dictionary finally be waning? Probably not. Don't expect to see this word leave the list anytime soon.

Melancholy, love, and hypocrite all returned to the list after a one-month absence. It's hard to see the significance of these three words moving together, but there might be a good story for a torch song lurking in these numbers.

Meanwhile, slipping off the list were hypothesis, caveat, and gorgeous. Caveat only slipped to No. 23, so we're sure we haven't seen the last of this one.

The new word to the list this month is didactic. Didactic is just the sort of word that frequently makes the list — it has to do with an abstract concept; it has clear classical roots; and it has multiple meanings with interesting shades of difference (Webster's Third lists six different definitions for didactic). It's the sort of word that may be on the list for a while, so to welcome it, we've made it this issue's Word History of the Month.