Every year the New Oxford American Dictionary prepares for the holidays by releasing its "word of the year."

Without further ado, the 2009 Word of the Year is: unfriend.

As in …

"His status updates were starting to creep me out, so I had to unfriend him."

"Unfriend" is the cooler, handsome, more athletic younger brother to "Uncola."

"Sarah Palin’s unfriending of Washington D.C. continued during a Monday appearance on Oprah."

"Nancy Pelosi’s power is constrained only by her continued inability to unfriend Alan Grayson."

"If he mentions working for the weekend one more time, he gets the unfriend."

"Why don’t you just unfriend her if she mentions her ‘CNN hit" one more time."

"The Obama administration rolled back the "Axis of Evil" and unveiled the new "Unfriends with benefits" program for North Korea and Syria."