'Shovel-ready' crowned Macquarie Dictionary's word of the year for 2009

Sydney, Feb 3 (ANI): 'Shovel-ready' has been named the Macquarie Dictionary's word of the year for 2009.

The word refers to a building or infrastructure project capable of being initiated immediately, as soon as funding is assured.

'Shovel-ready' was chosen from a list of new words selected for inclusion in the annual update of the dictionary.

Susan Butler, editor of Macquarie Dictionary, said that Word of the Year Committee selected the adjective because of its topicality and its visually graphic nature.

"The committee felt that this word was associated with one of the major preoccupations of 2009 - how to avoid a recession," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Butler as saying in a statement.

"Shovel-ready projects were worthy to receive money from the economic stimulus package because they could provide jobs immediately," she added.

'Tweet' was the most popular word in the people's choice category the most popular word was, meaning to post a message on the social network site Twitter. (ANI)