2020: The year of ____

All the ways we tried to summarize 2020

Pictures of a coronavirus vaccine, Black Lives Matter protests, Animal Crossing, and an Alabama football player
(Image credit: Illustrated | SAMUEL CORUM/AFP via Getty Images, Jeff J Mitchell - Pool /Getty Images, Courtesy/Nintendo, Todd Kirkland/Getty Images, Amguy/iStock)
Jeva Lange
By
published

How do you sum up an entire year in a single word or phrase? This was the question that drove my first-ever collection of headlines that attempted to do so back in 2016 (the year of "Zika," "Snapchat," and "worst year in history" — little did we know).

Normally when I round up the internet's attempts to distill the past 12 months, a pattern begins to emerge slowly, the way 2018 came to be defined by women and the aftershocks of #MeToo, or how 2017 was shaped by President Trump. Not so for 2020, when it is abundantly clear what event set the tone for the year.

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Jeva Lange
Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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