The 10 candidates for Word of the Year are already known! Which one are you voting for?

“ Combustível”, “chat” and “drones” are among the ten candidates for the Word of the Year 2026, according to the list today published by Porto Editora that organizes the competition.

The list of finalists is completed with “eclipse”, “street”, “exams”, “farming”, “habiting”, “tempests” and “back”.

According to Porto Editora, this “list reflects events, trends and concerns that marked the current day of the country and was elaborated from thousands of suggestions received, from the analysis of consultations in the Portuguese language dictionary of Infopédia and from the themes that stood out in the media and social networks throughout the year”.

“ The successive increases in fuel prices to unprecedented values, [which] aggravated the burden of families and companies”, justify the choice of “fuels” for the list of finalists, clarifies the statement released today by Porto Editora.

“The generalization of the use of ‘chat’ to designate systems capable of answering questions and providing support in different tasks” is also the basis of the choice of the English term of origin.

The same applies to “drones”, for their “intensive use” in war situations that have increased this year.

The choice of “eclipse” is due to the phenomenon that was observed last August in Portugal, which “awakened a general interest”.

And the economic impacts motivated by restrictions on free navigation through the Straits of Ormuz and Bab El-Mandeb justify the choice of the word “street”.

The selection of the term “exams” is rooted in the problems raised by the government’s decision to this year the correction has been done exclusively digitally.

“ The digitization of the national exams was marked by technical constraints that put the theme in the center of public attention ", recalls the statement of Porto Editora.

Among the finalists is “farming”, the expression “originary of video games”, which “gave popularity among young people” as “farming aura”, associated with “effort to obtain greater recognition and charisma”.

The worsening of the “difficulty of access to housing for thousands of people, causing demonstrations throughout the country”, put the word among the finalists, as well as the “tempests recorded in various regions of the country, associated with extreme weather phenomena with enormous impact”.

“Back” comes from the packaging recycling system, which came into force this year and “generated discussion about [its] practical application and [about] issues related to public health”.

The online vote runs until the next day 30, at www.worddoano.pt, and the winning word will be known next December 3.

The first edition of the Word of the Year of Porto Editora took place in 2009 and the term “smoke” was won. Last year, the winning word was “blackout.”.