Graaiflatie, the Dutch term for “greedflation”, has been named word of the year for 2023 in a contest organised by dictionary publisher Van Dale.

The word was the overwhelming winner in the Netherlands, taking 65% of the 15,000 online votes. Graaiflatie also won the parallel contest in Flanders with a more modest 36.7%.

Second place in the Dutch competition went to vreugdebier, which describes the practice of football fans throwing full beakers of beer onto the pitch to celebrate a goal, with 7% of the vote. Third was nepobaby – a person who owes their career success to influential relatives – with 5%.

Graaiflatie is not a new word, but its usage surged this year as corporations were accused of using the high inflation rates of the last 12 months to disguise even bigger price rises.

A study by Rabobank found that many companies had put prices up beyond the rate of inflation, but pointed out that they also faced higher overheads because of steep rises in energy costs and wage bills.

The English “greedflation” was among the contenders for Collins’ word of the year, but the dictionary maker opted instead for AI, which became four times more common in 2023.