Unfriend - word of the year

Unfriend - the act of removing someone as a friend from social networking site Facebook - has been named word of the year.

It topped a list heavy with tech-related terms in the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year list.

The verb, used across several social networking sites, has been defined by the dictionary as: "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook."

Christine Lindberg, a language researcher for Oxford's US dictionary, said: "In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year."

There had been some debate across blogs and Twitter, about whether 'defriend' was the more commonly used term, especially on Facebook. However, Oxford spokesman Christian Purdy said researchers found 'unfriend' was more common.

Other tech-related words which made the short list were: 'hashtag', the way Twitter users tag their material; 'sexting', the sending of sexual texts; and 'intexticated', being distracted by texting while driving.