The winning word is chosen by a jury under the guidance of publishing company Langenscheidt, who specializes in language reference works.
After some uncertainty about the future of the competition,[3] 2020 saw a new edition of the youth word of the year, with the winning entry being decided in an online vote for the first time.
But GfdS' Lutz Kuntzsch added that he considered it "playing with language", and that he would not expect young people to actually use all or any of the nominated words.
[...] When silly phrases are given center stage, and it is implied that this represents the level of speech and thought of today's youth, then this paints a distorted picture."
[36] Additionally, journalists doubted that the word 'Smombie' had seen actual usage, given that no mentions prior to the competition could be found, and a large majority of young people had never heard of it.
[38] A minor controversy hinged on the nomination of the word 'Hurensohn' ('son of a whore', bastard), which was suggested en masse by the users of a German-language community on Reddit.