What Is A Dictionary Useful For when the Most Looked-up word isn't in it?

Dictionaries are points of language contention. New inclusion of a word can be seen as conferring legitimacy. Those who advocate a dead language bristle at this -- stick to what we have! they say. Others see dictionaries as reflections of usage --- our langauge as we use it. Oh, and the former are wrong, the latter are right.

But what does it mean when the most looked-up word in the Merriam-Webster's online dictionary this year isn't even in it? Look-up frequency probably follows something like a Laffer-curve for tax policy. A word which is never used is never looked up; increasing usage means an increasing number of look-ups, until the point where the word is so common, everyeone knows it and, again, it is never looked up (does anyone question what the meaning of "is" is?).

But now, thanks to the web, we have a whole new class of words -- ones which reach near universal usage immediately, and when that happens, everyone at once needs to know what the word means.

So, the year's most looked-up word, which wasn't even in Webster's?

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