'Podcast' has been rated Word of the Year for 2005 by the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary.

Defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar programme made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player", the word will be added to the next online update of the dictionary next year.

Here in the UK 'podcast' is already in the latest revised edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), published in August 2005, as a result of being spotted in frequent use earlier this year. It is not yet in the online edition.

Angus Stevenson, project editor of English dictionaries and thesauruses at the OED, said: "We do not release a 'word of the year' but I would say that 'podcast' is an interesting choice.

"This time last year very few had heard of it. It's quite amazing how quickly it has become established."

New words are accepted on the basis of having appeared in widespread use in printed publications.

Stevenson said that 'blogging' had also entered the dictionary relatively quickly. "High-tech terms tend to enter quite quickly so long as they are not the preserve of the technical press," he said.

The OED publishes a language report which independently lists a word of the year. This year it was 'sudoku' and the previous year 'chav'.

Runners up for the 2005 Word of the Year in the New Oxford American Dictionary ranged from 'bird flu' to 'trans fat'.